


Bakers Gonna Bake

by NicoleTheHardyLover



Category: Alfie Solomons - Fandom, Peaky Blinders (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gangster, Love Triangle, Posh girl, Prostitute
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-15
Updated: 2017-09-18
Packaged: 2018-09-17 18:23:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 46
Words: 88,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9337454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NicoleTheHardyLover/pseuds/NicoleTheHardyLover
Summary: Alfie Solomons is the eternal batchelor. He isn't short of female company, however he chooses the particular time in which he can clock off. And that's the way he likes it. Until a fellow gangsters daughter comes to work for him, and makes his life more than a little bit complicated.





	1. Alfie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [](https://postimg.org/image/xmt8vjwmf/)

Alfie Solomons needed a personal assistant. The pile of paperwork on his desk was building up like the stack of useless pen pushers he had already had to let go.

Now that the war was over and his baking business was booming, he needed help with the tedious day to day activities that were confined to the mill and his dimly lit office.  
He squinted his eyes through the half moon spectacles he always wore on a chain around his neck, and furrowed his brow at the applications he had been given by Arthur Bennet, his foreman and favourite confidante for the last ten years.

They were all women of child bearing age and Alfie didn't remember asking Bennet for specificity when choosing potential employees for the office, but he knew why he had chosen this type of applicant.  
They had had women working here before, and it had turned the dreary and grim atmosphere of long working days into something much more enticing for the foray of male mill workers on the factory floor, and Alfie aswell, admittedly.  
It had improved the workforce each time. Suddenly everyone aimed to please in order to be brought into Alfie's office for promotions and briefings that favoured them to the pretty typist in the corner.  
Because of the war, women were now commonly in employment, and had a newfound independence that made them ever more desirable to the young men looking to take a wife.

However Alfie had been sure to see them off each and every time. Occasionally he would be unpleased with their efficiency, or sloppiness with his accounts. Sometimes he felt they weren't able to be trusted with the true nature of his business and other times he made the mistake of fucking them over his desk and having to terminate their employment faster than you could say "sorry miss you're no longer required".

Alfie hadn't yet taken a wife himself. He was 39 years old but the men of his time didn't feel the hastiness of the biological ticking clock, as the lady's prominently did and were often single and dealing with business instead of raising families.  
He had courted more broads than he could count on two hands, and laid with twice that amount, but he had no time in his schedule to waste on a nagging wife, and no desire to please anyone other than himself right now, and that suited him just fine. He dipped his wick when he needed to and he always, as intended, slept alone. If you didn't count the loaded pistol ever present under his pillow.

Bennet knocked on the clouded glass panel of Alfie's office door, startling him from the sweep of resumes he had been discounting. Too young, too old, not enough experience.  
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK. A quick succession of knuckled wraps.

"Come in" Alfie bellowed.

Bennet was not a sprightly bloke, as tall as Alfie but much better built. They had fought together on the front line at Flanders, and the horror of wartime battlefields had saw to it that they shared a bond for life, and Alfie trusted only Bennet with his.

"Sir." He nodded at him. "I have another resume for you."  
"Mmmph." Alfie grunted. "Haven't even waded through the first batch yet Benny, why you wanting to give me brain ache, old boy?"

"To be honest sir, it's not your usual application. This girl is practically still a bairn. But she's John Limbert's bairn and I thought you ought to at least consider her due to his help with the present dock situation."

Alfie lit another oil lamp and his ears pricked up as he blew out his match. That was interesting.

John Limbert was a current pivotal figure in the enhancement of Alfie's business.  
The business that was shrouded under a mask of pretence. The truth was, baking bread would not have made Alfie any type of fortune, and in contradiction, he was a very rich man.  
Bread was not what his bakery consisted of, no no. The bread he referred to was in fact rum. White bread was light rum, also known as the silver stuff which was fermented in steel, filtered to a clear colour and had a light, slightly sweet taste.  
Brown bread then, was dark rum. These gold or amber coloured rums were aged in oak, which produced a more caramel colour and a richer, more pronounced flavour.  
Alfie produced, and traded the finest rum around, both in London itself and beyond, using the docks as a go between his rural back yard and other mighty cities where he had connections such as Birmingham and Liverpool. This import and export service was proving very profitable for all involved and the docks were part of the jigsaw.

Those docks were owned by John Limbert. He was not a man to be trifled with, but then neither was Alfie Solomons. The two men worked well in unison as long as it suited themselves and their businesses just fine, but if one of them was to come off worse, it could wreak a lot of unprecedented havoc in London Town. They tended to do business through lackeys and avoided each other completely unless the business demanded a meeting, in which case they would keep one another at arms length with a wary smile.

"A Limbert girl?" He asked, looking up at Bennet from under his glasses.

"What the fuck's that prat up to then? Why would I want a Limbert girl all up in my accounts, giving daddy a nightly update on the state of my affairs. Is he trying to start a war Benny?" Alfie said, as he sat back in his creaky chair and rubbed his bushy beard with dirty fingers, looking bemused. He opened the drawer of his oak desk and looked at his small automatic pistol that lay there on a bed of brown leather.

"Sir I'm under the impression it's her own idea. She's erm..She's outside in the lobby and she's saying her daddy ain't aware, but she wants some typing and filing work, is all"

"Not aware?!" Alfie snorted loudly. "That man knows when I take a piss. And I he! ... If he didn't know before now, he will when the sun comes down and then we can discuss the matter over brandy. Call her in." He scoffed.


	2. Cora

Cora Limbert was a 22 year old gangster's daughter who had grown up in a swirl of niceties, unfamiliar to half the London girls her age. She had not wanted for anything, except excitement and had spent her teenage years cooped up in the country manor learning to write, read and type on a type writer to enable herself a career and resulting escape from the dull existence that had been forced upon her.  
Her father had insisted she stay in the country but she had moved back to the city a year previous to stay with her aunt and uncle in their town house. She had taken a job in a sewing factory during the war and had made a few friends. Her daddy had bought her a motor and she had the latest style of clothes and an expensive look about her that brought young potential mates flocking around her like pigeons. That was until they figured out her family name and suddenly decided she wasn't so appealing.  
Cora longed to join in with real life, but she was naive beyond measure and the grit of London existence often left her feeling lost and lonely. The women in the sewing factory had been nice enough at first, but in a time when gold bracelets and crystal hair pins were considered the Crown Jewels, she stood out like a sore thumb and was shunned and talked about like an outsider, leaving her feeling resented and out of place. She was also stunningly beautiful, and that had so far been her social downfall in a drab and dreary post war city.

These circumstances were what had led her to the bakery. She knew from the gossip that the factory was predominately male and she figured this would mean there would be no women to look down their nose at her for being slightly posh and pretty. The only problem was this bakery situated right by her aunt and uncles house was owned and run by the gangster Jew her daddy had told her to stay away from.  
When she had insisted on living and working in London, he had given her uncle a list of do's and donts that she should follow when conducting herself around the city.  
She should be home at 11pm each evening, even on the weekends, she should dress in such a manner that would not attract the wrong kind of attention from potential suitors and she should stay away from courting or working with his enemies or co workers. Her father had eyes and ears everywhere and she had obeyed his orders all year until this point.  
Alfie Solomons had been on the list, but she figured due to their comradarie in recent times, that her working for him wouldn't cause tension. On a whim she had decided to enter his mill and outright ask for a job. The worst he could say was no.


	3. Chapter 3

Alfie stood at the front of his desk, leaning his body back against it. He was chewing a pencil, waiting impatiently for the Limbert girl to enter his office.  
When she did his mouth fell open slightly and he coughed up his surprise with a raspy bark you only heard from cigar smokers. So she was a looker then.

"Scuse me" he spluttered, offering out his hand as she entered meekly, a vision of lace petticoats in a mint green shawl. Her hair was pinned up in a fashionable style of brunette twists and he wondered why in the hell this posh girl would want to work in an office with no windows. She wasn't right for the job, that was a certainty. But there was no harm in half entertaining the idea for his own kicks. He wondered how old she was because although she looked young, he reckoned she was old enough for a good stuffing. 

"G'day Sir" she said with a voice that was like sweet music to his ears. She removed a glove and shook his hand with a dainty gesture and as she dipped down in a curtsy, Alfie felt his cock twitch and he hurried in his bow legged stance, round the other side of his desk in a flustered panic that he wasn't quite used to. He sat in his chair and beckoned her to sit down in the opposing one in front of it. Then he smiled to himself because he knew now she couldn't see his tented trousers that hid only the first of his loaded pistols.  
"So I 'ear you want a job then miss. And what in Gods name makes you think you would fit in 'ere?" He asked the burning question on his lips. 

The comment hit Cora's insecurity like a spear in her chest as she realised he was probably right but it was also the exact reason she had come here so she spoke up for herself.

"Because I can type like a machine and make a good pot of tea." She shot back.  
"I ask no questions, I work efficiently, I cause no distractions and I will get the job done. Sir. That's why." And she sounded more determined than Alfie had anticipated. Although he wasn't sure about the distractions part. He was distracted with the embroidery around the chest section of her dress as they spoke even now.

He raised an eyebrow and sat back in his chair. "Hmm".  
Putting on his spectacles he decided to humour her and read the resume that Bennet had handed him on her behalf. 

-Cora Limbert, born 1899 to John&Alma Limbert of Carsington Estate in Stockbridge Down.  
\- siblings 4, children 0  
\- current address Barbury house, Camden Town, NorthWest London  
\- experience Salcook Sewing Factory, London Borough, sewing and down work, account keeping, filing, and typing.  
\- requested pay 5 pounds 21shillings pw  
-able to start with immediate effect. 

He finished quickly and placed the paper back on his desk. It was actually a good application, she had experience, he needed it. She had knowledge of his state of business already he didn't doubt that, he just needed to be aware of her intentions, and of her father's intentions more prominently.  
"So what does old John boy have to say about this then?" He asked her, watching her shift uncomfortably on the chair and smooth down her petticoat. She was avoiding his gaze and Alfie realised she couldn't spin him a tale if her life depended on it. An innocent, pure and simple and he already knew he could count on her to tell him the truth in her body language even if a lie escaped from her tongue. He awaited his reply more patiently than he was used to. It was 3 in the afternoon and he had things to attend to, but for some reason he wanted to hear this young girl with the pretty eyes, out.  
"He doesn't know I'm here sir." She said meekly. "The thing is he probably won't like it, due to your working relationship"  
"Oh?" Said Alfie, "and what do you know about that?"  
"Enough" she replied. "My uncle and father talk within earshot quite often, I pick up things quickly."  
Alfie wondered what else she could pick up quickly.  
"Do you have a gentleman, miss?" He asked her outright.  
It had the desired effect, a shocked Cora blushed back at the older man in front of her. She looked at him then, properly as she had not dared to at the start, and took in the smart figure he cut. He wasn't obviously handsome. He was all dark beard laced with flecks of copper, and slicked back hair that he really should have cut, she thought. But his eyes. Even behind spectacles she could make out the grey/green deepness of them and the intensity of their stare as he looked right into her own brown ones. She liked his authority.  
"No sir. I don't" she said timidly, this time holding his gaze, her cheeks remaining ever as Crimson. She licked her pale pink lips as the silence stretched out between them and Alfie watched her do it with a glint in his eye.  
"Good." Said Alfie abruptly and he put the resume in his drawer and slammed it shut, making her jump.  
"Whys that sir?" She asked with bated breath. She had no idea why she was hoping he wanted to know for personal reasons. She hadn't remembered feeling this nervous around a gentleman since her friend had tried to set her up with a man who worked in the local brewery. He had made her nervous for unsavoury reasons and her father had disposed of him before he got a second chance to lay his unwanted hands on her behind. Alfie gave her the same anxiety about what might happen next in his presence, but this felt different. Good different. 

"No distractions to your duties of course" he replied finally. And her heart sunk.

Just then Alfie's telephone rang on his desk and he promptly picked up the black receiver.  
"Yeah?" He asked.  
"Yeah put him through then, that was quick" he said, impressed.  
There was a pause and Alfie smirked at her quizzical look under his heavy moustache.  
"Ey up then." He said suddenly. "Yes, ......yes. He nodded to the person on the other line.  
"Il put her on" and he stretched the phone on its wire across the desk towards Cora.  
"John Limbert, on the blower for you miss" he said, his moustache curving upwards at the sides in a manner of amusement.

Cora rolled her eyes and tutted loudly, taking the receiver from Alfie.  
She listened to her father's expected chastations with seasoned boredom, and attempted a few sentence starters that were promptly shut down by the man on the other end. Eventually it went quiet and she spoke.  
"Of course father." She passed the hand piece back to Alfie with a resigned look on her face. He had poured himself a whiskey in a glass tumbler and he swigged it in one before taking back the phone. 

"Limbert?" He said gruffly. He wasn't intimidated and quite honestly he found this whole situation amusing. It was however, wasting his time. He had an appointment shortly and still needed to make an offer of employment to one of the many applicants sat in paper form on his desk.  
As he listened, his expression changed and he raised his eyebrows as the man spoke to him, again looking in the young girls direction.  
"Fine by me. Thanks. Yes, Shipment Tuesday, meeting Wednesday. Good day". He put down the receiver inside its bracket and looked at her with a bemused smirk. She would have thought him irritated had he not been grinning eerily. 

"Cora, was it?" He said  
"Yes" she replied. " I'm Sorry for wasting so much of your time today, Mr Solomons" she said solemnly. 

"Well Cora, you can make it up to me tomorrow. You start work at 9am sharp. You are dismissed now."


	4. Rosaleigh

At 6'o clock on the chime, Alfie ground his noisy engine to a halt outside the townhouse. There was rubbish spilling into the street from the bins outside the door, and the type of neighbourhood this house was found in, it stuck out like a sore thumb. When he knocked the required seven times before ringing the bell, it was answered promptly by a man with a tall hat and brown rimmed spectacles.  
"Alfie" he said touching his hat rim in way of greeting.  
"You really need to take a handle on that mess on the street, Harold" Alfie began, stepping past the man over the threshold. "Don't want old filth stopping by for any given reason and marching off with your pay roll." Alfie pointed towards the ceiling with his shiny black cane.  
"Aye old chap. The committee council refuses to empty it on account of what's inside." Said Harold sheepishly, slowly returning to his spot at the lobby reception desk.  
Alfie sighed. "Il have someone stop by tomorrow" he said wearily. He was sick of cleaning up her mess in more ways than one.  
"She's in room four" Harold said, his eyes back in his newspaper. 

Alfie was attending his usual appointment with Rosaleigh Pilkington. The working girl he had been using for the past two years and 3 months. Not that she was counting. 

Since courting wasn't his thing, he had been recommended the best knocking shop in South East London, by a pal, for when he needed to chase away his boredom or silence his demons with the temporary physical love of a woman.  
Alfie needed a professional because he was used to telling people what to do and being rough around the edges and although sometimes he supposed he would like to be taken care of and dealt with affectionately, most of the time he just wanted a rough fuck and an orgasm into a tin bucket.  
This particular girl was a madam. She ran the house with Harold and another silent partner Alfie never came into contact with, and she ran it well. It meant she didn't have to rent herself all too offen and it meant Alfie wasn't too worried that he might catch some disease.  
Whenever he felt like a barneymugging, be it night or day, he could call in and satisfy his urges by laying with her and leaving. She never asked him for more money, but he always gave it her anyway. It was a silent agreement that she would continue to service him without involving him in the gum beating other whores tried to, and she never cast a kitten if he decided to use someone else to shake things up. 

Alfie liked Rosaleigh, she was witty and her fiery red hair fell in loose waves all around her pale shoulders Which were spattered with freckles. She always dimmed the lights just the way he liked it, and sprayed the sheets with that lavender oil that made him hard, an overtly feminine smell that made him think of summer days and frolicking in fields as a youngster with the local girls. 

He wished he could find someone like Rosaleigh who would leave the creep joint brothel she called a business and set up home at his own manor. Although he would never voice it to her, she was the closest thing to a relationship he had entertained in the last decade. He supposed if she had her own room at his house, the place might smell like lavender more often. And he wouldn't have to travel to the other side of town to get his bones jumped. He pondered the thought and cast it aside for the second time that week.  
Not worth the hassle. 

"Alfie" she said sleepily as he entered her boudoir and inhaled deeply. There it was. Summer heather fields and sunshine. He hardened instantly. 

"Rosa" he nodded, setting aside his cane in its usual place and getting to work on removing his long black coat and waistcoat.  
She lay in bed waiting for him, in the silk chemise she always wore, with the threadbare lace edges. He could afford to buy her a new one, or ten. But he wouldn't out of principle as gifts were too personal.  
He took off his hat and placed it on the night stand, unbuttoning his dress shirt and loosening his belt.  
She watched him sleepily as his gold rings that he bore on every finger, glinted in the low light of the oil lamp on the wall above the bed.  
She had sprayed herself in lavender oil too, and as he slipped off his shoes and trousers, he wandered over to her and kissed her atop her auburn coloured head.  
"Good day?" He asked her.  
"Fine." She replied, and as she smiled he saw the powder she was caked in crease by her eye lines. She wasn't old by any means, no more than 35 but she had the look of a woman climbing the age ladder whilst desperately trying to stay put. People referred to her kind as a face stretcher, and he had to agree she looked like one now, a woman trying and usually failing, to look young. 

He climbed into the bed beside her and he was naked except for his cloth briefs. Straight away she sat astride him, knowing what he liked and knowing that he liked to do it quickly and be gone by seven. 

She lowered her head down to his chest, licking her lips before placing the wet suction onto the thick bush of curls she found there.  
Alfie never showered before attending her address, as he came straight from a day on the job, whatever that might have been. He always smelt slightly musty, with a mix of lingering soap. Before now he had come in all his bloodied glory, having just shot a man or looted his fortune. He often had wads of cash hanging from his pockets but she never questioned him because on days like that he would leave her an extra few bob. 

Alfie groaned lowly as she continued her wet kisses down his body. He shut his eyes beneath his furrowed brow and tried to relax. He knew what was coming and he knew he would be worked up again in all but five minutes so he wanted to enjoy the sound of her lips kissing his skin as he lay in relative silence. 

She reached his member after removing his briefs and licked her tongue down the length of it. It bobbed on a bed of brown wiry hair and she smiled as it hardened in front of her very eyes. Alfie's penis was beautiful to look at. It wasn't the longest she had taken, but the girth always made her grit her teeth when it pushed into her body and she found it difficult sometimes to fit it to the back of her throat.  
He had no hood to shield his shaft, being Jewish, and although she had laid with a Muslim man or two, she had never had the proper time or chance to appreciate the sensitivity of a circumcised penis.  
It made Alfie crazy when she even blew on him. And she did often, usually right when he grunted that he was about to cum down her naughty little throat, and doing so would make him offload with a spurt that was hot and salty across her lips. 

Alfie often watched her technique, honing in on her lips gripping his shaft and rubbing sloppily up and down the length of it, but today he kept his eyes shut tight.  
For some reason, since that posh girl that afternoon had entered his office he had an excitement he couldn't place inside his mind.  
He was actually looking forward to going into the bakery tomorrow, and he knew it wasn't because he could finally get his paperwork in order. 

As she worked him into a frenzy beneath her, spitting saliva onto his cock and bringing her hand to circle a tight fist around the base, his mind wandered to Cora and her low cut dress. The expensive embroidery that had littered the pulled in at the waist corset and the fine material of her knee duster skirts. He thought about setting her down on his desk, and madly ruffling under the layers of those skirts as she grabbed at his buttons and kissed his neck fur, pulling him closer between her thighs.  
As he rolled his hips in unison with the bobbing of Rosaleighs head, he remembered the light reflecting a chocolate shimmer from Cora's styled, pin-up hair and how a couple of loose strands had fallen down by her ears. He pictured himself removing her corset and hair pins, letting her loose brown curls tumble as her bra came off and her full breasts ..........  
"SHIT" he said, jerking involuntary, his seed hitting the back of Rosaleigh's mouth, the force making her eyes water. He hadn't expected to cum so violently without warning and he blinked his eyes in the dim glow as the girl he really wanted attending to him, disappeared from his minds eye.  
As his spasms subsided and the whore he was so used to, flopped down on his chest carelessly, He looked at the clock on the wall of the bedroom he was in. 6:30pm. Less than 15 hours until he would see her again. Time had better get a wiggle on, but he supposed he could kill some more until then with his working girl.


	5. Chapter 5

The church bell chimed three times as loud as the familiar echo of wartime gunfire and Alfie jolted awake, his heart racing. He didn't think he would ever get used to his weekday wake up call, as the bells rang out to signal the start of the working day. It dragged him from his restless slumber that was usually full of trenches and stenches and death. 

He felt the sunrise poking through his dusty curtains and hitting him squarely in the face. He squinted in a groggy stupor, knowing if he opened his eyes it was sure to blind him and so he turned over, groaning.  
Eventually he got up, stumbling to the washroom where his steel bucket full of stale piss sat ready and waiting for more. As he held his partially stiffened cock in one hand, struggling to point it into the bucket for the stop and go stream of urination, he placed his spare hand against the brick wall and let out a contented sigh. The stench from his secretions was getting a little strong and he realised he really needed to hire a new maid to take care of the domestic duties he didn't have time for.  
It was normal for most households to have a live-in maid but Alfie had never liked the idea of welcoming a woman into his living quarters, even if she was only there to clean up after him.  
His previous employees had been bequeathed a schedule. What time to come in. And what time to fuck off. But now the dust was building up and he mentally reminded himself to mention it to Bennet. He knew if he requested him to source a capable maid that cooked and cleaned, but who also conveniently looked like a pigs arse, he would find him one within the hour. 

The previous two maids he had had to dismiss because of their easy willingness to submit to his advances.  
He never understood why women got so attached so quickly. He had given them an invitation to suck his cock, it didn't mean they could climb into his bed afterwards and make themselves at home.  
Alfie liked to sleep alone, always. If he was drunk, or placated, after a good session, be it with a lady or a whore or in fact a maid, he would kiss them goodbye like a gentleman and then depart like a brute. That had proved to be a problem when they were an employee, be it of office or home. Home was where the heart was. And he didn't have any heart to give. 

****************************

Alfie attended work with little over five minutes to spare. The line of mill workers was thick and he bustled past them in his long black dress coat and top hat with the keys jingling from their chain.  
The grumble of the crowd softened when they saw him, as he passed them all to reach the main door, where Bennet stood waiting for him. Alfie trusted no one to open up the Bakery, and since he was usually always last minute with everything in his life, Bennet had learnt to get there early and placate the workers until he decided to show up. 

"Boss" Bennet nodded at him as he fumbled with the lock. 

"She not here?" Alfie asked. 

"Who sir?" Bennet replied at a loss to who Alfie was talking about. 

"The girl. The Limbert girl." He said as though it was obvious. He had waited all night to see her again, and he wondered once more why she had made such an impression when the typical lady did not. 

"I think I did see a woman towards the back there sir. Some kind of fancy hat piece... For some reason she's got lost in the crowd" and he laughed.  
Alfie opened the door as the men started to enter but he didn't go in himself, instead craning his neck at the entrance to see what Bennet meant by that.

Then he saw her. The men around her fussing and one of them making her giggle. His heart jolted, he felt annoyed but he wasn't sure why.  
As the line grew shorter and the bakery workers entered the building, she finally approached the entrance. 

"Good morning sir" she said with a touch of her hat, if you could call it one. It was more of a fascinator, with a feather and a sheet of lace and Alfie crinkled his nose up in distaste. Too fancy for the office, and she was attracting the type of attention he already wished she wouldn't. 

"Hmmmph" he acknowledged in return.  
"Come on in then woman, in future you should probably come up to the front doors with Mr Bennet, he will escort you to the office." She looked at him quizzically.

"Well You don't need to be mixing too freely with these oafs, I ain't trusting them all that much if you see where I'm going with it?" He said gruffly, as he put his hand on the small of her back to lead her inside after the last worker. She felt his protectiveness was a little misplaced.

With his hand on her he realised that the wool shawl she was wearing felt softer than the scratchy material he was used to on fabrics, even his own which wasn't cheap to say the least, and he curled his lip in distaste again. He hated the rich. He had a terribly poor upbringing as the eldest child in a family of ten Jews in the 1800's and all he remembered from the upper class is their unwillingness to help them get by.

However she didn't seem stuck up, and Alfie was by no means lower class himself now. But his loyalties would always remain with them. 

"This way ma'am" he directed as he took her across the factory floor to his office that she would be sharing with him. It held two desks, but Alfie was rarely stationed in the bakery for long periods. They would be working closely occasionally but he could escape when he needed to meaning she could also work freely sometimes without his watchful eye.  
As she walked beside him her heels tapped on the stone floor and he got a passing wave of floral scent that made his head spin. He mentally kicked himself for noticing details and realised she was already causing him great distraction. He better try and keep his distance if he wanted her employment to work out. 

And he did, because he had decided the previous evening as he drove home from the whore house, that having her there could in fact prove fruitful to his own gains. He would have a direct insight into John Limbert's affairs, and though he wouldn't call it spying, he could watch his dealings, the way he suspected his were being watched by him. Why else would he allow his precious offspring to mix with the likes of dangerous gangsters in an illegal distillery. The whole thing screamed conspiracy and he had better not get too close to the woman who had turned his head for the first time in years. 

When they reached his office he let her remove her dress coat whilst he removed his own and they hung them on the coat hanger standing tall in the corner. She was wearing a dark grey silken shirt with a high ruffled front and he was glad because it hid areas he might be drawn to, as well as a skirt that stopped just above the knee and dark stockings that led to her heeled boots. She was fashionable, Alfie could see that, and once she removed the stupid head piece he could see her brown hair was tied in a knot at her nape, with stray wisps already having worked their way loose.  
Oh she had class, all women of her calibre did, but did she have balls? Because Alfie needed a woman who was ballsy, to keep him on his toes. Not that he was looking for one.

When he snapped back from his thoughts, he realised she had been talking to him the entire time and he hadn't heard a word of what was said, so he placed his hat on top of his desk and interrupted her curtly. 

"This is your desk" he said striding over to the smaller oak piece of furniture in the corner.  
"And here you will find the filing cabinets, the typewriter, and any office supplies you may need" he instructed, pointing out various areas. She nodded obediently, taking in what he was saying, all the while watching his beard move with his words. She noticed that throughout he never released his frowned expression, and she wondered what he would look like when he smiled. She imagined a way in which to make him do so, and flushed pink when her thoughts strayed to inappropriate places. 

He spent a good few minutes showing her the paper work and what her job included. He showed her sign off sheets, orders, invoices, accounts, and just about everything else he could think of that he hadn't had time to keep up to date. She felt a little overwhelmed when he had finished but she would never indicate such a thing, and so she grinned enthusiastically as he finished and stalked back over to his own desk and sat down, signalling for her to do the same. 

"So you'll be working here then, with me?" She asked innocently as she sat.

"Yes. But that doesn't mean you can beat your gums at me all day. I don't do idle chatter. I have a job to do. And mostly I won't be here to distract." He replied, probably more abrupt than he meant to because she cast her eyes down, and began shuffling through some notes at his reply, throwing them into an awkward silence.

"There's a radio behind there" he said whilst pointing, in a way of retribution. "Haven't used it in years but if it still works you can pass the hours with some music, not sure if that's your thing?"  
"Oh it is Mr Solomons, Sir. I love music!" She replied happily.  
"Country music is my favourite, I know how to do the dances and everything" she clapped her hands in glee and he couldn't help but let his face relax at the sign of her enthusiasm. She was sure she even saw the corners of his mouth turn upwards in a smile underneath his thick moustache. 

By the end of the working day, Alfie had discovered everything there was to know about Cora Limbert, because she hadn't shut up. He knew that she loved nature, and to be outside, often taking long walks and riding horses. He knew that she had two brothers and two sisters and a pet poodle named Felicity. That garnered another smirk. 

He had listened while she talked of sewing and reading, whilst pretending to be engrossed in his own tasks. Occasionally they would be interrupted by Bennet, or a worker, and Alfie would bark out instructions or make phone calls that reminded her of his authority.  
When the factory bell sounded at 5pm, both Alfie and Cora couldn't help but feel disappointed that the day was over. 

She began gathering her things up quickly and he wondered if she had some place to be, or someone to meet up with. He remembered from her interview the previous day that she had no gentleman of importance, and looking at her now he found that entirely strange. 

"Well Mr Solomons... I guess i'll see you tomorrow"  
"Indeed" he said, his chin resting upon his laced together hands, his elbows resting on his desk.  
"And call me Alfie, that is my name".

As she left the office she looked back at him from under the lace of her ridiculous hat.  
"Goodbye Alfie" she blushed. 

Alfie sat back in his chair when she had gone and sighed deeply, his head a jumbled mess after a wasted day of work. He was stressed, and he needed an impromptu appointment at the whorehouse to relieve it.


	6. Chapter 6

Alfie's face was contorted. His hands fisted in the wobbly flesh of the woman's hips beneath him, as he held onto them and thrust himself savagely inside her body. 

Rosaleigh's face was buried into the sheets, which muffled the sounds of her wails as Alfie took her.  
She knew Alfie was a selfish lover, he never made time to enable her full satisfaction, he never kissed her delicately or ran his hands through her hair. Other men that visited her liked to do this, they wanted the tryst to feel genuine. Like the women they were paying for weren't just there for that reason, to fake intimacy and ignore their surroundings.  
But not Alfie. She knew she was just being used by him for the act itself and that he kept coming back to her because she could take physical roughness and never nagged him for anything different. He paid her well, and so she couldn't grumble but she wanted more than anything to kiss his mouth and feel his wiry beard between her thighs.  
She had spoken to some of the other girls he used on occasion, and she felt better about the fact he never behaved in a different way with them. 

She knew he must be physically attracted to her as he arrived with a soft member and she barely had to touch him before he was standing to attention beneath her and removing the bottom half of his clothing. He never needed conversation or sexy personal dances like some of the others, he was just desperate to get the job done.  
Although he was rough, he was never forceful and that was a big difference to a working girl. She knew he cared enough to make sure she was ok afterwards, especially if his ministrations caused bleeding, which on occasion they would. When this happened he would stay a few minutes longer and help her change the sheets, leaving her more payment and kissing her on the cheek affectionately as he left.  
She figured Alfie mustn't be married, he didnt wear a ring, but she had never asked him. He also attended her address infrequently which she figured was because he was courting someone new and it never worked out. He always came back to her, and Rosaleigh often imagined herself on his arm in public, be it as a wife or a mistress, accompanying him to his social events. She did however realise that he wouldn't be seen out and about with a quiff like her, as sexually active females did not make socially acceptable wives. 

Alfie began to speed up, and the bittersweet pain of his thrusting felt more intense. His open dress shirt tickled her back as he banged into her, and she could hear his groans getting louder the way they did when he was close to the edge. She propped herself up on her forearms, allowing her behind to rise higher into his groin and flicked her long auburn hair behind her so that it sprawled over her back, to make his view more pleasurable. It did the trick and Alfie abruptly left her body and placed his twitching length on her behind. He ran it up and down her split, letting the cultivation of his desire spurt across her porcelain cheeks. Sounds escaped his mouth that she never usually heard, feral moaning that pleased her no end, believing his enjoyment came from her and her actions. Maybe he was falling for her too, finally allowing himself to come apart in this way, she hoped silently.

Alfie creamed himself all over her back, spreading his secretion around her skin with his tip as his breathing slowed back down. He always removed himself from women before he could plant a seed and if he ever did so accidentally after getting carried away, he would pay them more under the unsaid proviso that they would take care of the mistake if it occurred. Alfie had no desire to pay child support to a whore.

He had cum so hard tonight and he knew precisely the reason why but he was trying to ignore it. For starters the girl was 17 years his junior and although this wasn't considered a problem in their community, she was a catholic girl and he had strong Jewish beliefs.  
Then there was her father, and her new employment at the bakery, and the fact that she seemed to be somewhat a bluenose. This was the term locally used for a woman who was morally uptight and prudish and he had no idea why any of this even mattered at all. Why was he considering her? ... He had no intention to court and that was his way.  
But as his 40th birthday loomed, the introduction of this sexy, interesting young split-arse had him both intrigued and flabbergasted. 

As he looked at Rosaleigh, with semen trickling down the back of her legs, a flirty smile spread across her made up face. He realised he had been lacking what he needed for years. A good morally upstanding lady to take down the middle aisle, as a wife. And he wondered for a second if Cora Limbert would be interested in him as a husband and how he could go about finding out.


	7. Chapter 7

For the next week at work, Alfie stayed put in his office.  
He would normally patrol the floors, and take shipments to the docks, deal with unpaid debts and tie up other loose ends around the city, occasionally returning to do his accounts or read reports. However he couldn't seem to tear himself away from the presence of the young secretary he had hired to make a point, and the more hours he spent listening to her, the more enamoured with her he became. He hadn't been to Rosaleigh that whole week, instead choosing to either work late, hit the pub by the docks to warm his belly with brandy, or retire to his quarters where he was free to let his thoughts of Cora roam.

He liked her a lot. She was warm and comical, and she had a way about her that you forgot she was a lady whilst remembering quite vividly that she was, everytime she left her desk and swayed her way over to the filing cabinet. She had worn an array of different blouses that week, all equally as pleasing to the eye and lots of accessories in her hair that added to her fashionable demeanour. He liked them a lot too, but he had often got to thinking, how he would love to see her hair loose and draped over his lap, her head bobbing up and down as her sweet mouth took him to the back of her throat. 

Cora was equally enjoying her time at the office. Alfie was old enough to be her father and she knew that. She wasn't familiar with men in a sexual way, having been a virgin, however she had feelings she couldn't describe when Alfie looked at her the way he did. She had caught him glancing at her often, usually over the top of his half moon spectacles and she would smile shyly at him before he made a great fuss of pretending he hadn't been, whilst grumbling and shifting uncomfortably in his seat. 

She felt at ease in his presence and able to talk freely even whilst in the company of a gentleman. She expected that's what it felt like to have a partner, to talk about anything and everything with, and enjoy mundane conversation whilst experiencing little butterfly feelings in the pit of your stomach.  
However Cora was a sensible girl. And despite how giddy and warm he was making her feel, she knew he was off limits for now and for ever.  
Her father would never allow anything to take place between her and a gangster. He had tried to tie her to a wealthy heir of a mining company twice and after that there was a merchants son.  
He wanted her to be thorough bred, and live in a posh estate and be taken care of in a life of luxury. Her two other sisters were already living that very life but Cora, as the youngest had never found this as appealing. She longed for excitement and a different way of living. This was the very reason she was in a London bakery to begin with. She wanted desire and she wanted real uncensored, uninhibited life. But that didn't mean she was able to chase it as freely. 

The war had proved to be profitable for men like Alfie who could exploit it. People wanted rum more than the roof over their heads and Alfie was rich as a result of it. This in due course had made him lots of enemies. He was both an endangered and a dangerous man and she had heard the many stories of his brutal way of life.  
No, Alfie was off limits. And that was that. 

********************************

Bennet entered the office to the sound of Alfie roaring with laughter.  
He stopped in his tracks and looked from one person to the other. That was not a sound he was used to. Not even after a skinful of rum and never in the office.  
He hoped Alfie wasn't playing with fire by trying to bed the Limbert girl, for all of their sakes. He had visions of the bakery going up in flames at the very idea, an enraged John Limbert holding the match.  
Alfie blinked up at Bennet as he held his stomach from laughing too much at something Cora had said. 

"Fuck you want?" He asked after a moment, when Bennet still stood awestruck in front of him. 

"Sir.... Alfie." He nodded at him.  
"Yeah...Er...Usual crowd and a few wives heading up the Barrel if you're up for it. Being Friday an' all."  
He was referring to the local boozer that the working men liked to drink away their weekends in after being in the confines of the bakery.  
It was practically run by Alfie, who paid the landlord nicely to let him sell illegal rum and allow in prostitutes. It wasn't the type of place he would like to take Cora, but then again how else could he see how she let loose and wether she was interested in him outside of the workplace.

"You fancy it then, Limbert?" He asked her.  
She pondered the thought and shook her head, much to his dismay. 

"Oh I couldn't possibly. It wouldn't be proper of me to socialise alone with men I barely know." She explained. 

"Ain't just men love" Bennet piped up. "The wives are in attendance tonight. It's my Helena's birthday you see, bit of a party going on. It's perfectly acceptable for the new office worker to be there." He nodded and Alfie narrowed his eyes at him. 

She pursed her lips. "But I'm dressed for work" she said looking down at her olive green shirt with the gold buttons.  
"Beg your pardon miss, but you'll be more properly dressed than half of the London population, you needn't worry" and he sniggered but snapped his grin shut as Alfie rose abruptly with a look of thunder on his face. 

"Alright, alright Ben, stop pressuring the woman. She said she don't want to come ok, and...."

"Oh I do" she interrupted him. "I do want to come, of course I do. It's better than finishing my knitting alone by the fire, plus I would love to meet your wife Arthur" she grinned in his direction.  
"Well then we'll see you there miss" and he avoided Alfie's glare as he left them alone again, shutting the door. 

"May I stick with you and your wife Alfie?" She asked him quietly. "I don't know many people around here and I'm not sure how to act in a drinking establishment." 

Alfie sniggered, he hadn't realised she thought him to be married, or that she hadn't even been to a pub before. She was more of an innocent than he thought. And he was gonna enjoy opening her eyes. 

"Get a wiggle on then love, ain't got all day" he chuckled, placing his hat on his head.

********************************

As Cora stepped into the brewery behind Alfie's silhouette, more than a few heads turned their way. He was happy for this to happen, knowing that it would reach her father within the hour and possibly create the showdown tomorrow that they needed for her employment to continue or to cease and desist. 

People weren't used to seeing him with such a fine lady and the second glances became more apparent as he took her arm and guided her. This usually meant that you were stepping out together, but Alfie genuinely needed to get her to a quiet space in the corner and stop her from being rooted to the spot by the bar. 

When she was seated, and nervously patting down her skirts, he clicked his fingers at the bar, and the man behind it immediately stopped what he was doing to attend to Alfie. 

"Gin with a tonic for the lady" Alfie said, glancing at Cora to see if she protested.  
"And the usual rum Alfie?" The barman asked him.  
"Nah, nah not tonight. Rum's for fun and fucking innit, tonight, I'm behaving" and he smirked down at Cora, who was looking at her laced fingers in her lap. The roar of the rabble in the room was deafening her. 

As Alfie sat beside her, she attempted to speak to him but she was drowned out by the jeers of the people around her. A man fell off his stool in a corner and as she glanced around she could've swore she saw another man in drag being felt up inappropriately in another corner.  
This was not what she had expected. The roaring twenties were in full swing and she had expected a swanky bar with dancers and a stage. This was a grubby hole in the wall, and her shoes were sticking to the floor. She tried to ignore the privileged mind that belonged to her and remember that this was what she wanted to experience, real working class life. And if this place was good enough for Alfie it was good enough for her. 

Alfie could see that she was not comfortable, and though he would've usually relished the fact that a rich girl was being brought down to earth, he was concerned for her instead. He dragged his stool closer to her own so they were shoulder to shoulder, and then leant into her ear. 

"No one will bother you, you're safe here with me" he said, hoping to give her some confidence. 

"Where is your wife Alfie? And Arthur's? She asked, scanning the room for women she thought fit the bill. She knew he wouldn't be tied to the wide, toothless broad at the bar. 

Alfie followed her gaze, and smirked again, his moustache twitching. He pointed to a table by the nickle-in-the-slot phonograph, where Arthur and his missus sat arm in arm. 

"That there is young Helena, 15 years his junior, sorry" and he coughed, "14 years as of today" he said sniggering.  
Cora smiled at the thought, the woman looked nice enough, and about her age.  
"And your own? Is she here?"

"Ahhh." Alfie started. "Yes she's right here" he said as he lifted his right hand and placed it on the stained table in front of them.  
"I'm afraid I don't understand" she said puzzled.  
"I mean I'm Not married love, not divorced, not widowed. A lone wolf,  
Just me and my right hand" and he winked at her.  
She swiftly took the gin that had been placed in front of her and took a large sip, an embarrassed flush creeping over her face and a nervous giggle escaping her mouth at his insinuation.

As the evening progressed, Cora was introduced to the wives of some of the workers, and some of their friends as well. She was crowded by the women now and Alfie sat with Bennet and Rimington, another of his close associates and his long distance driver. The eye contact between them was becoming more loaded. It seemed like every time Alfie glanced her way to make sure she was ok, her eyes bore into him and glinted a little before being cast back down.  
He knew she wasn't an outward vamp, nor a flirt, but the subtle way in which she had said she was hot and unbuttoned two of the buttons on her blouse had him feeling a certain kind of way.  
He was careful not to ply her with too much liquor, but she seemed to loosen up quickly and he realised she probably wasn't too used to drinking and smoking socially.  
The women selected songs on the phonograph and before he knew it he was watching her cavort to country music while he took deep drags of his Cuban cigar. She moved in a way he ain't ever seen. Not like the women around her did, clumsily staggering around the floor. Cora glided, and her hips swayed in time with the beat of the music, in time with the beat in his chest when he looked at her. He felt like no one else was in the room as he watched her swish her skirts, catching glimpses of stocking underneath, and her head being thrown back as she laughed with Helena. When she removed her hair pin he felt like it happened in slow motion. He had thought her hair to be short, as it was always pinned, or styled at her nape in a small bundle. However it tumbled now and the loose chocolate waves tumbled past her shoulders to skim against her breast level.  
He nearly fell off his chair when he was nudged hard, as Rimington roared with laughter at the side of him. He hadn't heard a word, and he furrowed his brow at the level of distraction a split arse was causing. He didn't know what witchcraft this was but he sure as hell wasn't used to it. He took one last glance at her, doing some kind of tap with her boots and encouraging the other women to join in, and he turned his back to her, afraid to keep looking. 

It was noticed by Bennet who leant into him and spoke lowly.  
"Beg your pardon Boss. But don't play with fire."  
"Hmmmphh" Alfie managed in reply, the truth was he was already feeling burnt.


	8. Chapter 8

When Cora made her way through the rabble of lairy dancing ladies, in an attempt at going to the restroom to freshen up, she stumbled over the boot of a gentleman and almost fell headfirst into the bar. It was certain that she would've done, if a set of strong arms in a flannel shirt hadn't scooped her up to prevent it.  
She looked up into the face of the man who had caught her and was relieved to see it was Alfie. Falling for him already, she blushed to herself.

"Bloody hell woman, what ya playing at falling over? ... Well fuck? I aint gonna be classed responsible for getting you in no fit state to conduct yourself, I think it might be time I walked you home." He grumbled. 

She could tell it wasn't a request because he already had a hold of her arms and he seized the opportunity to pull her by one, in direction of the doors. 

"Alfie wait, will you! .. I need my coat, and I need the restroom!" She urgently pleaded with him. She wasn't sure if his controlling authority was a good thing or bad. On one hand she liked that he ran the show but she had also had the show run for her, her whole life. A boss, a daddy, were all men the very same? She thought to herself as he let her go reluctantly and took off his hat to run a hand through his hair. A habit of his as she would soon come to realise, especially when stressed.  
She left him to grab her wool throw over and got twirled around by Helena as she attempted an escape. Alfie watched, propped up on the bar as she mingled with his own people, how they had all taken to her instantly like he had, and how she was definitely good stock and a prize if he could just win her over. Of course the obstacles were overwhelming, at least in his head. And again a familiar thought flashed into his mind as he wondered if it was worth the damn hassle of it all. The bloody sorcery of a woman rarely was and he had seen men who fought gallantly in the war being brought to their knees by the emotions they felt for a woman. He had always said he wanted no part in that game. Yet here he was, waiting while she had a piss. What was he a lap dog? On a leash waiting for its master? No, no he wasn't, he couldn't ever be.  
He left her in the bathroom and walked outside for some air.  
He pulled his pipe from his long black coat and the Tabacco and matches from his inside pocket.  
As he toked on his pipe, it bobbed around on his bottom lip and he exhaled the smoke flume deeply into the cold night and watched it float upwards into the dark sky.

Maybe he should visit Rosaleigh later, he pondered as he waited for Cora.  
The pent up frustration of watching a young, off-limits brunette eye fucking him all night across the crowded brewery, was enough to make him want to shag a hole in a fence if that's all there was around. Fuck the splinters! And he chuckled to himself.

"Alfie" came that sweet voice again.  
He turned on his heel and blew out his pipe, returning it to the pocket of his trousers. 

"Cmon then lass, il walk you home" he said as he eyed her. She had left her hair loose and it gathered on her shoulders, her heels clicking on the cobbles as she made her way over to him. He did his best not to stare and looked away into the distance to see if the fog was breaking but the air was still misty and it reminded him of the chokey wartime smog of days gone by.

She approached him all too quickly and as he turned to start walking with her, he felt a pull on the arm of his coat as she turned him around by it.

Before he could even comprehend what was happening he felt her body sag against him as she stood on her tiptoes and pushed her face onto his own.  
She kissed him with a passion he wouldn't expect from a shy, posh girl of her age, it was wet and firm and she tasted of gin. He didn't like gin but for some reason he could have drunk ten barrels of the stuff in this moment. 

His instinct took over and he gathered her close to him, letting her arms snake around his neck, the tips of her fingers reaching out to touch the rim at the back of his hat. His own arms found her slight figure and pulled it even closer into his broad one, holding her tightly against him and realising how dainty she actually was, making his heart beat quicker.

Cora moaned lowly into the kiss, She loved the feel of his lips on hers as they moved them together. His beard smelt of some kind of fragrance, a manly, masculine, clean smell that wasn't just soap. The fact it was so soft and not prickly suggested he used some sort of wax product and she didn't know why the hell her mind was focusing on his beard when his hands were roaming her lower back and edging lower by the second. 

She didn't try to prevent it, she wanted him to do whatever he pleased, to take charge of her and march her back to his manor where he could take care of her properly and rid her of this aching feeling she had to be with him. She had felt it all night and she knew it wasn't just the gin because she had felt this same type of way at the office whilst drinking coffee.  
His hot and heavy breath in her mouth tasted of tobacco but instead of repulsing her it only added to the spontaneity of what she had just done, it had been a massive risk but it was already paying off as she felt his physical reaction between his legs, press against her. She suddenly felt nervous.

The wispy strands of his beard pushed her to thoughts of being in his bed, as it tickled across her upper lip and gave her shivers down her spine. Would he want to take her home as a lover? She thought that she might like that. She wasn't cheap, and after all still a virgin, but Alfie was different. The desire was there.  
Their chests were pressed together as he held her so tight to him she felt like she couldn't breathe and his fingers were running up and down her back, digging into her flesh like he was afraid to let her go.

The dark and drab London street, with its cobbles and it's smell of damp, suddenly came alive around them both, stuck in an embrace that was totally unexpected but that felt so right in the moment.

Alfie heard the doors of the pub open and the noise from inside spill onto the quiet street, echoing off the brick and it snapped him back into reality.  
He broke the kiss hastily and stuttered and muttered apologies at her as he retreated backwards. 

She opened her eyes and saw the panicked look on his face and didn't know what to make of it. She wasn't used to seeing him flustered and she didn't like it, what was wrong with him? He looked far from pleased at what had just happened and she was left feeling instantly confused.

"Um... Yeah right. C'mon then lassy, let's be avin yer' ...this way" he mumbled walking over to the curb side by the brewery and leaving her rooted to the spot.  
Carriages often waited outside venues to return people home and he arrived at one all too rapidly, opening the door for her to climb in. She followed him feeling a little hurt, she thought he had been into the kiss but he seemed to want rid of her right now more than he wanted to kiss her and that stung. She didn't think that was how the next step was supposed to go. She had wanted more.

She climbed into the seat of the carriage and waited for him to get in beside her but he didn't. He walked to the front to approach the driver and slipped him some cash whilst whispering lowly into his ear. Then the horses were jolted and began a slow trot as he turned his back on the carriage and didn't even waste his time providing a goodbye. She sat back in her seat full of instant regret, and thought about her job and how she couldnt possibly face him again on Monday morning. She had grown so fond of it too. 

She had been so fond of him also, and she had enjoyed his company so much she had let him escort her to the brewery against her better judgement, when she was sure her father would disapprove. 

Thoughts were whizzing in her mind as she tried to decipher a reason for his coldness at the end of the embrace. He was completely single as was she, and yes he was older but that was becoming the norm. It couldn't be that.  
She racked her brains and thought about his religion but then again she ain't ever seen Alfie say a blessing before his food or talk about God, he can't have been so enamoured with it.. She felt hurt and confused and came up with just about the only reason she could as to why he had just been so cold. 

It was simple really, He couldn't have found her attractive and she had just overstepped the professional line.  
She had just messed up and embarrassed herself on a grand scale. Well if he was going to end her employment she would save him the bother! The 'morra she would go to salcook sewing and ask for her old job back. 

Alfie leant against the wall outside the brewery and bashed his head against the brick a few times.  
Shit. What did he just let happen. He hadn't thought for a moment she would have made a bold move like that, he had reacted like any man would but that wasn't the proper way to treat a lady. A kiss in the street and no permission from her father. 

Fuck! Her father. Alfie knew in the morning he was a dead man. But all he could think about right now was how he had just abandoned her to the night without a word, all because he had freaked the fuck out. 

**************************

 

Alfie lay vertically with his trousers gathered at his ankles. he was staring blankly into the middle distance, at the tiny crack line that spread over the smoke stained ceiling of the brothel. 

"Alfie is something wrong?" Rosaleigh said as she attempted to tug at the shaft between his legs. It was after midnight and she felt too weary to be playing with a floppy and flaccid penis into the small hours.  
This wasn't usually a problem with Alfie, his performance was always stellar, and she was usually left exhausted from his ministrations on a weekly basis, thanking him for keeping her waist trim. 

"Hmmph" Alfie grunted, interrupted in his thoughts.  
"Keep going Rosey.... He'll wake up in a minute love, put your lips round him or somethin, make an effort." She giggled and it made him smile. 

He got up suddenly and manoeuvred her underneath him. Her auburn hair glinted in the soft glow and her green eyes looked sparkly and warm. He stroked wisps of her hair from her eyes and bent down to nuzzle his face into the crook of her neck for some comfort. As he inhaled deeply, the strong lavender smell heightened his senses and he felt the familiar stir in his groin. 

Rosaleigh did too, and she squirmed under the heavy weight of him as his member pressed into her, growing in size by the second.  
She was shocked by the intimacy he was expressing, he had come to her late and after shift and she had thought about not even answering the door but the lure of money and Alfie had overcome her.  
Now she was glad she had because he seemed to have something that was bothering him, and in turn he seemed to need the comfort from her that she was more than willing to give. That she had wanted for so long.

She ran her hands gently down his back, scratching softly with her nails, a seductive trail down to the crack of his arse. He was sighing and he rubbed his beard along her collar bone, littering it with soft kisses from his forever dewy lips. As she traced her fingers over him she could feel scars on his back, raised welts and pitted indents and she remembered he was fresh back from the war at flanders. She wondered if this was the reason he was so emotionally closed off. 

Alfie pulled up one of her legs beneath him, parting her thighs so he could enter her. He wasn't sure why he felt the need to have this connection tonight, he had never made love to a whore before, but she was the next best thing to what he needed and Cora was probably crying into her pillow at home as he did it. He pushed her from his mind and slid into Rosaleigh with a groan escaping him.  
Tonight he needed intimacy and to feel like a partner, and he knew already he was feeling far too deep for that gangsters daughter if she made him want that.  
He buried his face into her neck once more, as he felt her soft stomach meeting his own with each deep thrust, he sped up until he heard the smack of their bodies meeting and felt an aching pleasure with each one, eventually letting himself release inside her with rushed breaths, whilst gritting his teeth. 

When he left half an hour later, he put an extra 10 shillings on her dresser for the slip up of putting his seed into her. He hadn't realised he left her with so much more than that.  
Rosaleigh was more in love with him than ever, and she was hatching a slip up of her own.


	9. John Limbert

John Limbert was in the office early, and it was Saturday so he was less than impressed.  
The dock warehouse had been broken into last night and the thieves had taken a good few shipments that belonged to important people. The trouble was, it was Johns look out to make sure the place he stored the goods was secure enough and this loss was going to hit a lot of people hard, especially him. 

His blower rang and he lifted the receiver on the first ring. 

"Stephens?" He barked.  
"Hmm. Grrrrrf. No no no man, I can't be dealing with the business of Cora today, you deal with it, keep your eye on Solomons I want that mark placed in his bakery and I want weekly reports starting next Friday." He was agitated and he couldn't be bothered with family shit right now. 

"Yes, yes I know I said I wanted an update on last night, but I've got shit to attend t...... What the FUCK DO YOU MEAN???" He raged suddenly, spit flying from his mouth and his face reddening.  
"What time?!" He asked, thumping down into his black office chair and rubbing his weary temples with his stubby fingers.  
"And did anybody else see? Did he take her home?" The last part was said cautiously.... Through a wince that he couldn't prevent. He really hoped he got the right answer. He breathed a sigh of relief when he did. 

"Il deal with it. Good day." And he slammed the receiver back into its bracket.  
He had been furious when the people he got to follow his Cora had informed him of her impromptu walk into the bakery for a job, but that had quickly turned around when he realised it was a good place to have an innocent pawn.  
He had told Alfie that day on the phone to indeed give her the job and that it would teach her a lesson on the way of the world, hopefully making her realise she didn't want that kind of life. He told her he wanted her taken care of on his head be it, and now look! He was attempting to take care of her in more ways than one. Well he wasn't having it.  
Alfie would be dead within a week for touching his baby like a whore in the street. 

As his racing heart began to slow again there was a rap at the door.  
"Come" he said, thoroughly fed up. As Saturday's went, this was probably his worst since the war.

Alfie Solomon's walked through the door with a bow legged swagger and John nearly fell off his chair backwards at the sight of him. The stupid man had just walked right into the lions den.  
He shot up and reached into his jacket pocket for his revolver but before he could even reach the inside of his lapel, he felt cold hard steel on his forehead. Alfie had beaten him to it, thrusting a pistol in his face with a look of menace that told him their working relationship was now somewhat sour. 

"Sit down Limbert and hear me the fuck out" Alfie said, authoritatively. 

The gun moved with john as he slowly and reluctantly moved downwards back into his chair, as Alfie reached into the man's pocket and retrieved his tool, laying that and then his own delicately onto the desk in front of them both, side by side. 

Limbert looked menacing, and Alfie knew he probably had a back up weapon behind his desk like he had of his own, but he played it coolly like it didn't matter that he did, giving him that leeway so he felt on top of the situation, even if he wasn't. 

"You know why I'm here" he said and it wasn't a question. There was only one almighty elephant in the room today.  
John nodded and his nostrils flared.

"Well first of all I want to ignore that part and get straight to business" he said, and John raised an eyebrow. 

Alfie sat down in the chair in front of him and leant his black cane against the desk, taking his hat off and lowering that on top of the two pistols. His moustache twitched as he continued. 

"It's come to my knowledge that one of my shipments has been pick pocketed, and a rather large one if I've heard correctly?" He asked, and paused waiting on a reply. John hadn't spoken since he had entered his office. 

"Hah. Fuck your shipment" he said finally. Why would Alfie's shipment matter anymore when he was a dead man walking. 

"Oh no, you don't want to fuck it, because it just so happens that the very shipment that went missing, turned up on my doorstep this morning."  
Limbert looked him in the eyes, his bewildered shock apparent.  
"Yes" Alfie nodded, "and then that weasel faced Italian scum Salvini's also suddenly turned up in his own yard too. And Billy Kimbers. Funny that ain't it?" Alfie finished, smirking. 

John was flabbergasted and confused. 

"Well I happen to have worked out what's happened here even before I had my kippers for breakfast. You've been making a few enemies by raising the price of your transfer and entry fees, haven't you? And this little catastrophe has been caused by someone who wants to reveal your weaknesses to all of your associates. They're trying to fuck you up the arse Limbert. And they've gone and succeeded I tell you because Salvini is on the rampage about those diamonds." He smiled inside at the worried look on John's face. 

"My point is. Well why I'm here.." Alfie continued. "Is that Im probably the only person round here to know exactly who the faggots are that want your arse on a plate. And if you play by MY rules, il serve up theirs for your taking." 

John knew he had just been backed into a dark corner, but instead of being infuriated as he was when Alfie walked in he was actually impressed. This asshole had the noggin to work out he was up shit creek without a paddle, and find out the information he needed to, to get himself that paddle, or in fact out of that creek. 

It didn't occur to John that Alfie was even smarter than that again, and could've in fact set up the entire event in order to LOOK like he was doing him a favour, when he had in fact landed him in the hot water to begin with. Alfie knew intelligence was a very valuable thing, and that it usually came far too fucking late. Luckily for him he was better at time keeping these days. 

"Go on then" said John defeated, sitting back in his chair and folding his hefty arms. "What exactly do you want?". 

Alfie cast his eyes down. He would've found his own demands a joke if they weren't so serious and he let out a great noisy breath before he continued. 

"Your daughter is a fine woman." Alfie said and he kept his eyes unwavering on Limbert's. Before he could protest Alfie continued.  
"And by fine I mean she is a proper lady, and I, though I doubt you've experienced, can be a proper gentleman. ....

...Sir I want to court your daughter." 

Alfie blushed pink and flicked his eyes towards the pistols half concealed by his bowler hat for any sudden movements to retrieve them.  
John stayed silent and unmoving, his face expressionless. 

"And that's not me asking permission mind.... I don't need nobody's green light. I just wanted to be a man about it and tell you that's my intentions. So you don't think I want something more unsavoury than she deserves, innit?" Alfie muttered. 

"Isn't it?" Limbert finally spoke up, correcting Alfie on his grammar to a receiving glare under a furrowed Jewish brow. 

This kosher fool was sat here asking if he could put one in his youngest daughter whilst pretending that he didn't really want to put one in her. He was a smug cunt if he ever saw one, but a smart one, as he believed he was himself. Well if letting Cora have a few meals with the man with no intentions, whilst he got the information he needed and the help to take them down then so be it. He hoped by the time Cora was charmed into the bedroom of his newfound enemy, he would've used him for what he needed and disposed of him into the Thames. 

"What makes you think my daughter wants to - court" and he swallowed hard. "You?"

Alfie sniggered, his prominent front tooth slightly yellowed and irritating to the man in front of him. 

"Well I don't sir, but I know I need to find out."  
Limbert was satisfied that Cora probably wouldn't want this bushy haired sheeny anyway. So he nodded an agreement. 

"I wont be doing a deal on my own daughter Solomon's... But I won't stand in your way if you decided to freely give me the information I seem to require." He finished with a sigh. 

The corner of Alfie's mouth twitched upwards but he stopped himself from smiling, not wanting to goad any further. 

"You need to make a trip to Birmingham old boy. Those peaky blinder's are getting a little too big for their grandad caps." 

Alfie got up and left. His plan had come together perfectly.


	10. Chapter 10

Alfie walked up to the front doors that morning with a spring in his step. 

"Bennnny boy" he said with a growl, and Bennet nodded at him as he began to whistle whilst opening up the iron padlock.  
"Sir. Will you be requiring your motor this afternoon. Remember you have a meeting in place with Thomas Shelby."

"Voice down then Ben, you know better than that." He said looking cautiously over his shoulder at the noisy rabble as he opened one door allowing them to pile in. "Yeah il need it." He said, glaring at him.

Alfie looked to the back of the line for Cora. Even though he had insisted on her coming to the front in a morning with Bennet, she wouldn't jump queue and had continued to join the factory workers at the back to mingle in their early morning conversations. It drove him crazy.  
Alfie had made sure he was on time for a change to minimise the duration of that occurrence. He couldn't wait to see her today. He figured she would be a little mad, and that he was probably going to have to grovel and spit out some dribble about how much he liked her to get back in her good books. Even if he was well aware it wouldn't be dribble at all. 

However, as he scanned the heads that were quickly lowering in number into the bakery, he realised he couldn't even spot her.  
This was confirmed when the last worker tipped his flat cap at him and he was left with a gloomy and empty back street in his sights and nothing much else.  
He lowered his brows into a frown, wondering if she was maybe sick and he had a telegram waiting for him at his desk to let him know. He had better go check. 

He trudged his way there, mentally making a note to take her some remedies if she was, before he had to endure that peaky fucker this afternoon. As he walked the floors he was pulled aside by various workers over tedious practicalities like machinery error and unmet deadlines. His mood was worsening before he even reached his office, but when he did it got much worse. 

There was in fact a telegram waiting for him in the mail slot. It had Saturday's date stamped onto it which made him frown as usually no one bothered with business on a precious weekend. He put on his half moon spectacles, his forehead creases deepening the longer the frown remained on his face.  
Ripping it open and starting to read he was stunned as he realised what it was. A handwritten resignation. From a Miss Cora Limbert. 

Alfie shifted back in his chair and rubbed his chin beneath his beard.  
Well shit. Hadn't seen that un' coming had he? He hoped to God his efforts with her old man hadn't been in vain. He owed the Birmingham boys a good turn and a few bob for the whole Burgling business at the weekend. And although it had been tactical on his part to stir up trouble and cause ructions between Salvini and Limbert, he had to pull it off sharpish so he could use it to save his neck after Cora had kissed him. 

And she had. She had made that first move after all. And it can't have been just him who felt that prickle of electricity between them as they shared saliva on the cobbles. Alfie didn't kiss, so she was bloody lucky he hadn't recoiled in horror and made an exception because he was impressed with her newfound confidence.  
But then he had seen that look on her face when he HAD recoiled, and gone on to send her packing without an explanation. A rejected woman could hold onto her scorn for years and he knew that because he had rejected half the women on this side of the Thames.  
But to jack in the job she had gone against the grain to acquire, to walk away from him completely because he had a brief moment of panic over her display of affection, surely that was over dramatic and unjustified. But then again women were, they were all headache, he knew this well. Even the whores he used infrequently always nagged him, played games with him and made his temples ache on occasion. But he actually believed this one to be worth the odd migraine so he kept on his coat, ran his hands through his hair before replacing his hat and set out to find the moody mare that was worth it all. 

********************************

Cora was brushing her hair at her dresser. She had been brushing it for the past fifteen minutes and it had started to shed into her lap. It was a nervous habit, and she was full of anxiety as she sat in her nightgown without a job to go to. 

She had still been raging inside when she had written her resignation. It was formal and curt and she hoped it had hurt him like it had hurt her, despite believing it probably wouldn't. He was obviously devoid of feelings because he was a devout gangster, she should have known better than to profess her affections to one so boldly. However she hadn't been able to help herself and that was a completely new and invigorating feeling to her. She had never realised lust was a physical knawing ache but now she knew well that it was. Unrequited lust she imagined was even worse.  
She felt sick at the thought of him at work this morning, seeing her resignation and probably tossing it aside to get on with his job. Rather like he had tossed her aside in the same way. Her stomach dropped again, she liked him way too much and she knew she couldn't stomach breakfast this morning. 

When she was downstairs, she lit a fire in the lounge and refrained from opening the curtains due to her inappropriate state of clothing. She felt like staying in her night dress all day, to wallow in self pity and then tomorrow she would attempt to find a new job. It wasn't as though she needed the money, and she had decided she couldn't retreat in life and return to the sewing shop, which ultimately left her at a loose end and needing to find something new. 

As she made her way down the hall to go and get herself a cup of tea from the kitchen, she passed the door at the front of the entrance way.

There was suddenly a loud and impatient banging, the metal rap being belted against the oak with vigour. It sounded like someone aimed to break down the very hinges that held it there. Cora panicked, she was home alone as her aunt and uncle had their own business in steel and would be gone until nightfall.  
She was in no fit state of fashion to answer the door so she ignored it and hoped the person who seemed frightfully impatient to be answered, thought there was no one at home. 

She wasn't so lucky, and as she stood listening behind the door for any voices, she jumped at the sound of more aggressive knocks and then a voice. A voice she knew well. 

"Miss Limbert!!!" Came Alfie's grumble through the wood. And another sharp knock.  
"Oh shit. Shit shit shit" she whispered under her breath, it was him.  
She hadn't reckoned on him coming to find her. It was only 9:30am, which meant he must've read the resignation and come straight to her. She would be lying if she said she wasn't flattered by that thought but she wasn't sure she was ready to see him just yet and face her embarrassment. Well that was tough now, because here he was. 

She grabbed her robe from the bannister on the bottom of the stairs and wrapped it around herself. Normally she wouldn't even consider opening the door to a gentleman in her nightclothes but what else was she supposed to do. She wanted to hear him out and if he left now he may not return. 

"I'm coming!" She shouted back through the door. And she turned the key in the lock and heaved open the crevice ever so slightly. She didn't intend on letting him in, or letting him see her in just a robe. She was also fresh faced and devoid of the colour she usually wore on her cheeks, as well as weary from lack of sleep. Why did he have to be here now?! 

He was stood on the steps with his full dress coat and bowler hat on, his cane in his hands and his glasses still on. He looked handsome, and she felt the familiar flutters she had come to associate with him. 

"Mr Solomons" she muttered coldly, giving him a piercing stare.  
"How can I help you?" She was met with silence for a moment and she realised he didn't know how best to play the situation and was stood pondering on it.

"Are you alone?" barked Alfie eventually. 

"Umm... Yes" she answered him.

"May I come in?" He said, pleadingly looking up at her, his voice softer now. 

"I'm not properly, um dressed" she said innocently. 

"Look it's not nothin' I ain't seen before love, I won't take any notice of that, I need to speak with you. It's urgent" he said. 

She contemplated what she ought to do, and looked around to see if there were any passers by but the street was quiet, so she opened the door and stepped aside cautiously as he came past her into the house. Her father would have an aneurism if he found out about this. However she had to admit, rebellion thrilled her slightly.

When he was inside he stood in front of her and she felt overwhelmingly awkward in her ensemble. She crossed her arms in a defensive gesture to shield her chest, but the bottom of her bare legs were on display to him anyway. He wasn't looking. Alfie took his hat off and placed it on the end of the bannister where her robe had hung earlier. He sighed as he did it. And she felt even more awkward with every passing second of wordless silence. She could hear the tick of the grandfather clock nearby.

"Well ain't you gonna give me an explanation for the prompt self dismissal then love?! Or you still crying over spilt milk and sulking in your nightgown?" He said glaring at her.

Wait! He was mad at HER? Bad Alfie was back then, she was shocked at his rudeness. 

"I don't appreciate the sarcasm Mr Solomo..." And he interrupted her..

"Alfie" 

"Alright, Alfie. There's no need to be rude. I've made a decision that's right for me and its my prerogative." 

He sighed again and decided to let down his guard... It was worth a try.

"Come back Cora." And he took his glasses off then, depositing them into his pocket. 

"Place is empty without you, I'd gotten used to that crap country music and your giggling over my bad jokes. Plus.. " And he paused... 

"Bennett ain't half as good to look at."  
Her mouth curved into a shy smile. 

"And his fragrance is more like that compost shit they use to bed the roses than your scent of the Rose itself, you know what i mean?" And he raised his eyebrows in serious question. 

She couldn't help but laugh at him then, a girlish giggle escaping her lips as she relaxed her demeanour. He smiled at her warmly in his own way, but it came across as more of a grimace and she felt a twinge of remorse for her silly actions as he really was a good man. 

"I'm sorry for what I did that night" Cora said sheepishly. She knew her cheeks were flushing now and she stared at the floor, shuffling on her toes.

She was shocked when Alfie moved towards her and pulled her face up with a calloused finger under her chin. 

"Why in God's name would you be sorry?" He said to her. 

She looked into his eyes then, quite close to her own, and full of confusion as he looked right back with pretty much the same expression. They were both equally confused by their feelings, that much was obvious.

Alfie decided it was his turn to be bold now. 

"T'was bloody marvellous" he said. 

And she fell about laughing again. He knew just what to say always, her heart was pounding but she felt warm inside. 

"I ain't gonna lie T'was a shock though Cora love. I mean, you are John boys daughter and you were my responsibility and my new employee. Do you see what I mean? Your old man's hardly as sweet as gingerbread is he now? That there kiss had a lot of ramifications. But it was good for the old ego if I'm gonna be truthful" he said with his honesty obvious.

She couldn't hide her look of happiness, as she smiled through her reply. She had her reason for why he pulled away and it was so much better than what she had first believed. 

"So you gonna come back on the job then sweetheart?" His cockney accent was thick and in contrast to her countryside poshness he sounded funny and common. 

"Don't make me say please woman" he mocked, his eyes narrowing in a smile. 

"Yes Alfie. Il come back." She answered. 

"Marvellous again, il wait here while you go get dressed. Off you pop." He said retrieving his hat. 

"What right now?" She said.  
"No time like the present" he replied seriously.  
She rolled her eyes, making him smile gently beneath his moustache as he watched her trudge up the stairs. 

"Fires on in the lounge... MISTER Solomons" she called to him.

He watched her all the way to the top of the grand staircase which was much bigger and shinier than his own. Her slim legs looked like dewy porcelain, reminding him of a china doll.

"Defiant little bugger" he muttered to himself as he wandered in search of the lounge.


	11. Chapter 11

Cora typed up the order forms quickly while the soft, seductive sound of American country melodies filled the dimly lit office. 

Tap tap tap. Tittle tittle tittle. Tap tap tap. Tittle tittle tittle. 

Alfie was on the phone and flicking through old and worn envelopes on his large desk while he spoke. 

He was half listening to what Billy Kimber was saying. And Half not.  
He was more interested in glancing over at the little firecracker in his office, keeping his accounts in order and his thoughts all out of sorts. 

She stopped her work to take a sip of her coffee from a dainty China teacup and he thought her so ladylike he expected her little finger to stick out when she lifted it to her lips. It didn't and he was glad because she wasn't perfect and neither was he. He was far from it and he wasn't sure what he had to offer this woman except his devoted affections.  
She was too good for his world, and yet she was embroiled in it anyway on account of her father.  
He needn't worry about posing a risk to her safety by association as her birth right already held her at ransom in the wicked, corrupt way of a gangsters world.

He supposed he could offer her his protection to couple her father's but also her own family life. The middle aisle and a few bairns to boot. Although he wasn't a model family man, he knew countless geezers who found comfort from their unspeakable daily deeds in the arms of a mundane household complete with wife, dog and 2.4 children.  
He chuckled to himself wondering what had gotten into him, half forgetting he was on the phone to an important racehorse fixer of high calibre. 

"Nah mate. Fuckin ridiculous. It's a No. It's Categorical." And his face became serious once more. This bastard just pulled him out of his daydream.

As he finished his business on the blower and placed it down, Cora smiled at him from her side of the office. It was a loaded smile, and he was sure she had taken to unbuttoning that lime green blouse she was wearing. He could see the line of cleavage and he knew he would've spotted that exposure before, had it being there. No doubt about it. He licked his bottom lip, whilst staring at the way her hair fell loose today. She hadn't had time to style it as he rushed her back into work that morning and he was glad because that's how he liked it, loose and wavy, and tumbling down her back. 

"Will ONE bring ONE that file on the Tuesday shipment please, Miss Limbert?"'he asked her in a mock posh voice that mimicked her own. 

She laughed at him again, glad of his happy mood and stood to deliver the file to his desk. As she reached him and passed it towards him, Alfie grabbed at the arm that offered it and brought her round to his side of the desk in one swift yank.  
She yelped and he shushed her with a finger to his lips, whilst glancing at the time piece on the wall.  
She leant back against his desk, leaning on it with her hands and looking at him expectantly, her brown doe eyes melting him, waiting to see what he would do with her. 

"C'mere" he said using his head at a tilt to show direction. He patted his brown coloured cord pants in his lap area and Cora's heart skipped ten beats. She couldn't suck in air that easily on account of her lungs closing down, along with her ability to speak in tow. 

She decided to roll with it. She didn't have to play coy. Alfie must know she wasn't a hussy although she had never confirmed it to him in words and he knew full well by now that she was interested in him. The proper thing to do would be to keep up the tease. Blow hot and cold and make him work for her affections but if she was honest she didn't think she could last another day with the mind games and holding herself back.  
She had already decided that she wanted Alfie to be her first, and soon as well, so she straightened her skirts and sat on top of them in his lap. 

Alfie leant his upper body into her and gently took her soft cheek in one of his manly hands. He cupped her jaw as his beard tickled her face, his lips finding hers and melting into them with a soft sound effect. With the music in the background Alfie wished they were someplace more private. He wouldn't normally take advantage of a girl with prospects, she was a lady and he knew she was probably a virgin too. However, having being around her all hours of the day over the previous week, having her kiss him passionately in the street without invitation, watching her shimmy with other women in the barrel and expose her legs to him in that flash house, he wanted to throw chivalry out the fuckin window and rip her expensive clothes off now.

He held back though, even when she broke away for air and took his hat off of his head, placing it upon the desk. Nobody touched Alfie's hat, but Cora? well she could touch anything she wanted of his as far as he was concerned.  
He couldn't believe his luck when she reached to his neck and started to unbutton his shirt, his crucifix on its chain rattling between her fingers. 

She looked at him for validation, wanting to know if it was ok, and Alfie simply looked back with a fog of lust blanketing his eyes. Once his cloth shirt was open she could see his body underneath. His chest was amass with thick hair, and the crucifix lay on top of it like an altar on a carpet. His stomach was tanned and tight, and as she looked down at it, she revelled in the delight of his happy trail that led beneath his belt.

She had no idea what she was doing and she stopped there not wanting to make a fool of herself like before. 

Alfie took his cue and took her wrists in his hands, he placed both of her palms flat onto his chest, and she felt the heat radiate from the surface of him. She felt so lucky to be touching him in this intimate way. It was enough for now, she thought as she laid her head against his chest on his lap. She could feel the muscle in between his legs expanding, as she sat atop of it, and so she ground on it slowly, a natural movement that had him suddenly making unnatural mutterings. 

He lifted her head once more and kissed into her neck, his facial scruff again giving her tickles as he gave her sweet pecks along her jaw bone and round to her ear lobes.  
He whispered her name into her ear and his voice was hoarse like he needed a gallon of water. 

"Cora......?" 

"Mmmmm" she moaned, her eyes still closed enjoying the feel of his hot breath into her ear and down her neck.  
He could smell her hair and it smelt like a summers day, not of lavender but of Roses and honeysuckle and promise. 

"Let me court you" he whispered, continuing his trail, keeping her under his duress, whilst his hands wandered to her waist to hold her steady. 

All of a sudden the door to Alfie's office flew open and Bennet tumbled in, all limbs and panic and fluster.

He started to speak but then he saw what he had walked into and his cheeks went hot. The Limbert girl had been straddling his boss, who had his shirt wide open with her hands on his body and his bushy face in her neck.  
They both spun around when the man entered and Alfie's face took on a look of dark thunder. 

"This had better be good!" He said to Bennet, as a flustered, red-faced Cora jumped out of his lap and scurried back over to her desk. Alfie began buttoning up his shirt waiting for the reply.

"Sir it's Shelby. He's sent someone in to fetch you and he's waiting in a motorcar for you, out the front"  
Alfie groaned. He was late. And now that pretty little bastard had had to come and get him. Well he didn't want him stepping foot inside this bakery uninvited, so he closed his waistcoat and strode over to the coat peg for his long black dress coat. The smart one that screamed expense. When Bennet had saluted and left the office, Alfie picked up his hat, ran a hand through his slicked back hair and placed it a top of his head before glancing back at Cora. 

She was typing again, like nothing had ever happened and her composure satisfied him no end. His moustache twitched in a knowing smile as she avoided his obvious gaze. 

Tap tap tap. Tittle tittle tittle. Tap tap tap. Tittle tittle tittle.

"Tonight I'm taking you up town." He said to her authoritatively.  
She finally looked up into his eyes. 

"That's if you want me to. You gonna let me treat you properly lass?" He asked, still needing an answer on this whole courting business. 

Cora nodded with a shy smile. "Yes Alfie, I'd like that very much."

"Marvellous" he said, his eyes twinkling at her. "Be ready for 7, I'll pick you up" and with that he strode out of the office for his meeting with Thomas Shelby. 

His words hung in the air after his departure. The quiet music still in the background soothing her hammering chest, but only slightly. 

You gonna let me treat you properly? he had said.  
Cora blushed as she realised that she would much rather he continue to treat her IMPROPERLY.


	12. Chapter 12

Alfie stood in the warehouse with Thomas Shelby, Bennet and some other peaky fuck. 

He wasn't in the mood to be here today, he would much rather be with his little Limbert girl, who would be busying herself at the office now probably shimmying around seductively to her melodies. However business was his bread and butter and he had shit to attend to. So she could wait until later.

Alfie reached into his pocket as he sat at the wooden table that had been set out for the meet up. He skimmed the cold metal of his pistol in the inside pocket of his coat and pulled out a tissue, using it to wipe his nose. 

"Shalom Alfie" Tommy said as he sat down opposite at him. 

Alfie glared at him. Was this prick taking the piss? Alfie hated any reference to his religion, especially condescendingly in business talks. Like it was used against him, viewed as some sort of handicap. Well this Jew wasn't doing so bad for himself so the gypsy twat could pipe down before he made him. 

"Top of thee marnin' to ya" Alfie replied in an Irish twang and that set the tone. The two camps weren't allies, and the undertone between them was dangerous.  
However recently they had the shared interest of taking Salvini down.  
The man was making a mockery of the ways of their trade. Killing important faces for unimportant reasons and cutting everybody short for his own gains. Each camp around here had their own trades, yet Salvini seemed to want a bite of all their pies.  
So Alfie had strategically used the Blinders to rape John Limberts docks in order to give him a reason to have bad blood with Salvini and terminate his trade route.  
This would undermine Salvini's ability to be top dog and would mean Alfie's business would resume as the mother of London firms and Shelby's as the mother of Birmingham's- whilst leaving alfie as the silent instigator of salvinis downfall.

However, now Alfie owed the Blinders a turn, for putting themselves in the firing line. They were meeting to discuss their protection from Limbert and future moves for the docks. It could end up being a cush deal. Or it could end up being gang warfare if they didn't like the deal and landed him in it. 

"Go on then" Alfie started.  
"Tell me what it is.. You want to sell ME something".... He paused. "WHAT?!" 

Tommy Shelby smiled sweetly at him. He actually liked Alfie Solomon's. They were rivals in some senses but mostly they figured things out so they didn't clash horns. He found him amenable and knew that he didn't act on the impulse that salvini and kimber did, so disasters were never his calling card. Plus he didn't want to sell him anything at all. He wanted Alfie to give him something of his own.

"We want in on the Horses." Tommy said simply.  
"Horses?" Alfie replied. "What fuckin horses?"

Tommy smiled again, he expected the front but it didn't mean he could be bothered listening to it. 

"Twickenham." He wanted to keep this as clean cut as possible. He wasn't into playing Solomon's games.

"Fucks he talking about Benny?" Alfie said, clasping his hands together and animatedly turning to his companion with a look of confusion on his face. 

"Mr Solomon's.." Tommy started with a sigh. 

"Alfie" he corrected him. 

"Alfie then.... Look. We scratch your back, you scratch ours. This is how our little arrangement started out."

"I only have a quarter of Twickenham. I ain't handing it over." Alfie said defiantly raising his voice as he glared at Tommy. 

"We just want an in. It ain't yours were after. Loan us half of your piece now, and when we move in and take Kimber, you can have double back. Fair deal. Is it not?" Tommy asked. 

Alfie pondered it. It was a fair deal but he wasn't about to admit it or agree to it. 

He felt like he was getting bent over like a little bitch with his hand forced.  
He knew, and he knew well that the peaky blinders did race fixes and that was their game.  
He also know full well that he wouldn't be getting his share back in the long run and that little extra gave him more than a little rise in his bank balance. So he said no. 

"Twickenhams mine. Epsoms mine. I ain't budging. Call me a pessimist but I've never known a gypsy scum tell the truth. Fanciful mate, ainnnit?" And he sat back in his chair, his patronising glare hitting Tommy Shelby right between his baby blues. 

Bennet had his arm ready to draw fire, he also had two more men ready outside the window, he was expecting all hell to break loose. 

However Tommy Shelby had the brains and the brawn and this time he had one upped Alfie Solomon's, so he smiled in easy comfort. 

"Cora, is it?" He said quietly to Alfie and Alfie's expression darkened instantly. 

"Pretty name that, wouldn't you say Michael?" He continued, turning to his cousin.  
"For an even prettier face." 

Alfie's heart was going like the clappers but he waited for Tommy to expand with his bait.

"Wouldn't it be a frightful shame if Miss Cora was to go.. ummm. Missing?" He finished. The terms were predictable and Alfie should have known better. It must've been the kiss in the street. There was a reason Alfie showed no love to anyone and many more reasons why he stayed clear of any weaknesses. But it looked like Tommy Shelby had just found one and he was using it as leverage. 

It was a very smart move, Alfie realised he had him over a barrel, and he was killing two birds with one stone because he could also use her for Limbert. Cora was in great danger if Alfie didn't toe the line today, and also if Alfie didn't get them back in the good books with her father.

He sighed... An exaggerated deep sigh. He wanted out of here today. He needed to talk to Cora about the new circumstances.

"In time I may forgive this undercut Shelby.. But I don't break bread with gypsy scum. And I won't forget.  
Bennet will sort Twickenham. Epsoms mine. Good day" he rose and with a swish of his coats he was gone. 

********************************

Cora was almost ready. She dabbed the glitter powder over her neck and chest area to give her pronounced but subtle cleavage a sparkle effect. 

She had butterflies but they were more from excitement than nerves. She hoped tonight would be the night, so she sprayed extra fragrance beneath her skirts. Alfie had made his intentions clear, he wanted to court her, he didn't want to use her, and he cared about her enough to bring her back on the job and risk dealings with her father, which is more than any other man had done previously.  
Plus she was crazy about him and she needed a physical release. It was about time she became a woman. 

She heard the doorbell ring and she rose quickly, grabbing a hold of her handbag, she felt a million dollars and she hoped Alfie thought the same. 

"I'll get it!!" She called as she scurried down the stairs. Her aunt and uncle were in the lounge and were now well aware of the Jewish man with no intentions due to John's warnings. Cora had to be home alone by 11pm as usual and they were under strict instructions to crack the whip if she wasn't. 

She answered the door and her heart fluttered at the figure he cut on her doorstep. Alfie had a crisp white shirt on with black dress pants and a black fitted waistcoat with pin stripes. He didn't have a hat on and his cane was absent too. He looked so much younger than he normally did and more appealing than ever. His gold crucifix hung from his neck, which fell atop of the slight chest hair beneath his exposed shirt, and he had a gold pocket watch on a chain hanging from his waistcoat to his trouser pocket. 

He whistled in air and made a small sound effect when he saw her. It made his chest wrench because this night would be bitter sweet and she looked absolutely adorable. He knew he was about to hurt her but he wasn't used to the feelings he had about doing so. Normally this wasn't a problem. 

"You look." And he stopped talking, searching for the right words. "Well I'm speechless ain't I?!" He finished. Cora tucked a curl behind her ear and gave him a sweet smile.

"Il just grab my cloak" she said as she dashed down the hall. 

Alfie felt sick.

He had decided in the warehouse that Cora was a weakness. She would be used against him by anyone who could and at the top of his game it left him too vulnerable to take the risk.  
He wasn't bothered about himself, Alfie could fight his own battles and had survived the trenches of the world war. What he cared about was her getting hurt, getting raped, getting God forbid it, killed. Because gangsters didn't care about who they murdered to get strategically further up the food chain.  
No he was making a selfless decision. She would have to remain his secretary and he would admire her from afar, despite how much that would kill him. She deserved safety and happiness and he wasn't the man who could give her both side by side.  
Tonight he was going to have to reluctantly reverse his advances and tell her they needed to stay friends.


	13. Chapter 13

Alfie drove them to The Cove, a swanky bar on the upside of town that catered to well known faces and the rich. It had dancers and the latest singers and a menu full of weird and wonderful cocktail liquor. 

He knew Cora would fit right in. He had brought a woman here before when he fancied playing the courting type but it turned out she had been way too morally loose and he had finished the night in the bathroom with her up against a cubicle wall. He never saw her again after that.

Cora was of the higher standard of lady and he was proud to have her on his arm even if it was a temporary outing. He left the driver's side of his vehicle and and plodded around to hers, opening the door for her and taking her gloved hand to assist her down the step. Once she was on gravel, he shut the door behind her and held his arm out for her to take. Again another display of a couple courting. They entered together and Cora's eyes widened at the sight to behold in front of her. He must have brought her to the most high end place he could've found. Places like this weren't the norm, especially so close to the end of the war. She took it all in with her eyes as he led her to a booth in the corner. There was a stage, with a backdrop full of twinkle lights, draping downwards and glinting in the dim glow. Red curtains with fancy gold embroidery hung around the place, and pictures of well known singers and actors hung in frames behind the polished mahogany bar. 

As they entered, a gentleman in a top hat and tailored blazer took her cape, whilst a small older lady holding a bunch of roses passed one to Alfie with a smile. "A rose for the lady, good sir, 5 pence" she said. 

"Il take a dozen" Alfie said, reaching for his leather wallet in his pocket until Cora stopped him with a giggle. 

"No he won't, just the one will do me" she insisted, taking the stem from his hand and burying her nose in the petals. She was certain her cheeks were currently the same shade of red.

Alfie made sure she was comfortable on the velvet backrest before he wandered off to collect them a drink. The band were playing a sweet melody of classical music and the place was busy, the rumble of voices sophisticated and low, not at all like the Barrel. She wasn't sure which she preferred anymore however, she had been able to be herself in the lower class pub, to let loose and meet friends without judgment. Here the people looking at her disapprovingly on the arm of a gangster Jew, would probably faint from shock if she did her country dancing or kissed Alfie openly like she wanted to. 

He returned with her a wide rimmed glass full of orange liqueur, a mixture of fruit placed around the sides with a trace of sugar as a rim. She looked at it in wonderment, sipping at it and choking at its strength. Alfie smirked as he knocked down a chug of his brandy from its tumbler. 

"Gerrit' down yer lass" he chimed. "It'll do yer good" and he gave her a warm smile which she returned bashfully, sipping a little bit more. 

He knew in the back of his mind he should get straight to the point and tell her they needed to end whatever they had between them before it had properly got started. However looking at her relaxed and so overtly feminine, her face made up with subtle effort and her scent enveloping him in a rose garden, he couldn't do it just yet. So he engrossed himself in her and her conversation, even chuckling at bizarre stories she told of holidays abroad with her siblings.

"And I swear to God Alfie... He didn't even notice the elephant, and it was right behind him, I swear it was" she laughed animatedly speaking of her brother and their time in Africa. 

Alfie chortled along, enjoying her company as usual and getting them more drinks in as the night went on.  
Soon he became hot bloodied from the alcohol and he removed his waistcoat from his broad shoulders, rising to hang it up on the coatpeg by the dance floor. He didn't notice that Cora had followed him at first, that was until she grasped his hand from the back and he spun around defensively removing it from the unexpected grip.

"Jeeeesus woman. Must you always surprise me that way! My ticker is older than yours and it might give out should I encounter one more jump from behind at the hands of you!" He laughed now, loose from the brandy. 

"But I want you to dance Alfie" she said and she grasped his large fingers again, dragging him out onto the floor where lots of other well dressed couples danced to the upbeat tempo. 

"Don't dance love. Can't and won't!" He said going with her all the same.

Once they were centred on the floor she started to sway, as ever keeping a rhythm that excited him with her swaying hips. Alfie wanted to tell her to stop, as he watched her, a hand on his chin rubbing his beard and his brow furrowed at her forced interjection. However yet again whatever witchcraft she possessed stopped him from doing so and instead he started to rock on his feet slightly, his hands in his pockets now in an awkward kind of shuffle movement. He looked around, nobody was paying them any attention and wether he was drunk from the brandy or his lust for her, he let her take his hands from his pockets and lead him, twirling herself around under his arm. He laughed when she laughed, and then he couldn't stop, he snorted and guffawed loudly and they laughed harder between them. Eventually as they continued, an out of town singer came onto the stage and introduced herself. The crowd clapped and so did Alfie until his face darkened when the melody changed to the slowest song known to man.  
He watched in fevered desperation as the couples around him gathered together to slow dance. 

Cora cocked her head to the side trying to suss out the panic on his face. This man had two sides and she knew that well already. There was the public persona he put out, the Gangster Jew that ruled with an iron rod (or more specifically a cane) and didn't do displays of public affection. In fact he became quite flustered and embarrassed by them. Then there was the Alfie in private who pulled her onto his lap in his office and planted soft kisses along her jaw, his hands under the blouse that hid her back.  
She liked the private one better, and she knew she had to make him so hot for her that he couldn't refuse to take her somewhere private, so she moved forward and seductively placed his hands on her lower back whilst reaching up to grasp his neck. 

"Cora... I don't..." 

"Shhhhhh Alfie...shhh.. Please just go with it. This is my favourite song." She pleaded, her voice so low he could barely hear it. She placed her head on his chest then, and moved beneath him so that his body found itself matching hers and swaying to the music.  
Her head was right beneath his face and so he rested his bushy chin atop of it, enjoying the feel of her fingertips brushing the fur at the back of his neck.  
He clasped his hands tightly around the small of her back, letting his fingers graze her skirts where her underwear would start. He closed his eyes and smelt the fragrance of her hair, strawberries or raspberries or all the sweet berries of the world combined he was certain of it, and yet again the seductive and feminine smell made him as hard as steel in his trousers.  
He knew she would be able to feel him, as their bodies were pressed tightly together whilst they swayed, and his pants were tailored meaning they tented so much more easily than his normal slacks. He could feel her grinding against it as it rose, and his groin burned and ached to be inside of her. To feel her tightness for the first time and slowly help her accept him into her innocent body. 

"Cora stop" he said finally, as the song changed and another slow melody rolled forth, and he pulled her backwards slightly by the material of her dress. 

"I can't Alfie, and I don't want to either." She looked up into his handsome face and stared first into his eyes and then took her gaze downwards to his full lips, Half concealed behind the grizzle. She licked her own seductively.  
"Please..... Take me home." She paused, keeping her low lidded eyes on his ... "Your Home" she stuttered in clarification, her intentions clear by the wanton look on her face. 

Oh shit was he in trouble. Here he stood, as erect as a street lantern with a beautiful, elegant young woman pleading with him to take her home to his bed, knowing that he would have to decline.  
If he laid with her he would hurt her more than ever, and lose her altogether from his life, it was certain. 

"Corah... I can't. Don't do this. I need to talk with you." He uttered, mumbling. She looked confused and hurt just like the time on the street and he could hardly bear it.  
He took her hand and led her back to the booth, looking around to see if anyone had noticed their heated exchange and the mound in his trousers as he walked her back to the other side of the room. He didn't think they had.

When he had her to himself, tucked away in the deserted corner he began his tirade before he chickened out. He needed to man up.

"I think we should just be friends." He started. 

"I can't.. I can't see you romantically any more. It would never work. I'm a Jewish man, you're a Christian, you're too young for me, and ....I just ain't for you, you ain't for me alright?"

He blurted it all out like word vomit.  
And her reaction was like she had been covered in it too. It was a far cry from what he was saying this morning. 

She looked hurt, angry, confused and devastated all at once. But she didn't say anything, she didn't have to.  
She stood up in the booth and he followed suit, his eyes sad and weary, willing her to just say something. To call him a bastard, a brute, a pig, anything, but instead she walloped him around the cheek with a flash slap to side of the face. He stood there for a second, shocked and accepting the gesture, feeling the sting inside and out, and then he watched her screw her face up and take off, grabbing her belongings and picking up speed as she rounded the tables and ran for the exit. 

He went after her, of course he did, his bad leg prohibiting him from gaining the speed that she had, but he was stopped at the door she had departed from. 

"Excuse me Sir, but the lady will be taken care of, no need for you to see her home." A tall man in a suit held Alfie back by his chest briefly before letting go. Another man dressed equally as snotty spoke again. 

"Mr Limbert has assured us that you will leave the lady alone should we require it" he said, giving Alfie a knowing look. 

"Fuuuck" Alfie muttered, his hand running through his hair, leaving it sticking up in all sorts of directions. He returned to the coat peg and picked up his waistcoat, taking a look at his pocket watch on its chain. 

As he left through the doors, the men followed and he felt like picking up a brick in the street and doing them both in with it. He knew he could as well if he cared enough at this moment but all he cared about was making sure she was ok and got home safe.  
When he got into his motor he pulled out noisily, quickly sobered by the crisp night air. He rolled his car all the way back to her house, taking the corners almost too sharply and not even stopping for pedestrians who shouted obscenities after him as he splashed them with muddy puddle water from the cobbles. 

The men from the bar had of course followed him, and as he stopped outside her house he saw another motor already parked outside. It was John Limbert's. Alfie hesitated for a second before he charged right through the gate and up the front steps anyway. He banged the knocker on the oak with the same urgency as the first time he had been here and it reminded him that he was here apologising for the second time since he had known her. He was always fucking up, and he wished life could be simple and they could just revel in their lust for each other, not having to worry about consequences. 

The door was opened by John as expected, but rather inexpectantly he had a pistol pointed right at Alfie's skull. He pulled back defensively.

"Leave without commotion or I swear on my dear departed mother, Alfie Solomon's, I will blow your brain out allover this stoop". He was red in the face.  
Alfie was speechless. There was no way to get to her right now, he was going to have to admit defeat.

"Our association is done and dusted. The docks are out of your spectrum and you are finished!" He shouted after Alfie, who whipped himself around without a word, returned to his motor and sped off with a screech of rubber on gravel. 

Cora watched him from the upstairs window of her bedroom, a tear falling down her face as she plucked a petal from the Rose he had bought for her.


	14. Chapter 14

Cora had spent the remainder of her evening placating her stuffy father, explaining what had happened and insisting Alfie was not a bad man.  
The last time she had been upset because of a male was the groping incident where he had wiped out the man in question within the hour and she couldn't quite believe he had let Alfie walk back down the front steps without a scratch on him.  
She knew there was a business reason he couldn't kill Alfie and was thankful that had saved his neck this time. She had spent ages explaining that this was the opposite scenario and she was upset because Alfie had told her he couldn't be that way with her and he hadn't so much as touched her inappropriately in the whole time she'd known him. 

When her father had left satisfied, she shared a teapot and toasted bread with her aunt, a feeling of numbness washing over her as she struggled to eat a crumb. 

"Cmon Cora, you need to eat something before bed dear, you'll feel better in the morning" her Aunt Tilly reasoned.  
She was thankful for the concern but she knew that was a load of "bollocks" as Alfie would say. 

She retired to her room and let down her hair from its pin up. She half laughed at the sorry face she saw in the mirror as she removed the hair grips and used a washcloth on her tear stained face.  
Her friend Annie was right. Love really was blind.  
As she got into bed and put out her light, she laid on her feather down pillows and let the tears flow. Her thoughts drifted to Annie, a petite blonde that she went to boarding school with. She missed her and could really do with the girl chat right now. She was back in the country near her parents Manor House and she briefly considered catching a train back there tomorrow, complete with her trunk of belongings for the foreseeable future. Oh her father would love that. He would probably have ten snobby suitors lined up within the week and the prospect made her want to cry again. 

No. She wasn't going to run away like before. She was going to go to work tomorrow with her head held high. She had only just been given her job back, and she liked it, even without Alfie pulling her onto his lap.  
She liked the freedom of working at her own pace without a supervisor breathing down her neck or deadlines. She liked the lack of jealous women whispering behind her back. She liked the music she was allowed to hum to in the background and the little cake lady that Alfie had pop round mid afternoon.  
She smiled as she thought of him stuffing Madeira sponge into his mouth whilst the crumbs stuck to his moustache and washing it down with the coffee she had made for him. 

She had fallen so hard and so unexpectedly for this man, and it was a foreign feeling. Normal mundane things, providing he was around to do them with, had taken on a fresh excitement.

Although she was sick of chasing after Alfie, embarrassed at how she made it known she wanted him physically, practically begging him to take her to bed, she knew she couldn't stop.  
If she worked in his office with him maybe she could persuade him that all the barriers he talked about didn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. Right at this moment she felt like hanging onto him by her claws and if she had more courage she would have given him a call and told him she would convert to Judaism tomorrow if that's what he wanted.

However, Cora knew now that this wasn't a religion issue. Once she had calmed down from the initial shock of his second rejection she realised what had happened. As if it was her age, or her beliefs, how in Gods name did he expect her to believe that. The very same morning he was begging her to court him, letting her unbutton his clothing and caress his body whilst sighing in response to her touch. How did his views on the same subjects that had always been there, change so drastically in a matter of hours? She wasn't stupid. Between that office tryst and The Cove something had happened. And she knew what - Thomas Shelby. 

********************************

Alfie had no planned direction but the route was taking him to the edge of the city by the docks.  
He drove and drove and he stared straight ahead not able to take in any peripheral vision.  
He had been certain after what happened at the warehouse that he should steer clear of Cora in that sort of way, for her own safety and his peace of mind.  
Now though, once the damage was done he felt like he had been deposited into the Thames with a rock tied to his ankle anyway. The sinking feeling actually hurt his gut, a heavy heart hammering despair that made him realise the depth of his feelings for the young girl he had put through the emotional wringer while he decided what was best.

He had never been a man to shy away from a threat, especially one from a fortune telling ponce like Tommy Shelby and so he carried on until he reached the docks themselves.  
There was an inn by the river, it's lamps still aglow, and it's fire still roaring and he knew he would find Shelby there if he was still in town. He had heard him say that they would be meeting with Limbert's people the same day, discussing the dock situation and since he had witnessed the live status of John earlier he knew him and the peaky's must've come to some kind of agreement or John would be dead. 

He parked his motor and trudged through the mud to the door of the inn, heaving it open. There were a few travellers inside, faces he did not recognise and some ladies of the night sitting strategically on a lap or two. He scanned the room for any sign of the Birmingham lot but there was no such luck so he ordered himself a double whiskey on the rocks and supped it in one. 

As he ordered a second, a familiar voice spoke over the barman. 

"Il get that for the kind sir" - the lull of thick Birminghamese settled in the air between them with the words spoken.  
Alfie didn't have to look up.  
"Shelby" he Said. 

"Looking for me are we?" Tommy replied, gesturing at the barman with two fingers to provide them with another drink each. He pulled up a wooden stool next to Alfie's own and drank his drink in silence waiting for Alfie to speak his reply. 

"Twickenham. You can have it." Alfie mumbled.  
"Sorry what?" Said Tommy flabbergasted.  
"You know you signed over half already right Alfie? How much have you actually had to drink? You forgotten our little exchange this morning where you told me to stick my offer up my arse in no uncertain terms. Lying gypsy scum. That term was thrown around alot." Tommy patronised. 

"I know what I said. And I'm here to give you Twickenham. In full." Alfie downed another whiskey and made a pained sound at the burn it gave his chest.  
Tommy was confused. "Why Alfie?" 

Because I want out. And I want something back in return. You scratch my back, I scratch yours... Remember?" Alfie dragged his gaze from the bottom of his tumbler and looked around the boozer, he didn't want anyone overhearing him knee-deep in business talks that revealed future plans. On first sight there was no one left but a fat man feeling up the chest of a whore in the corner, and the peaky lot on the backrest, who Alfie recognised as the other Shelby brothers and a cousin, so he continued. 

"I'm taking Limbert down. I want the docks. You can have the horses." He said calmly even through Tommy's ridiculous laugh.  
"So you want to bend over two members of the Limbert family do you?" 

It was a bad move. 

Alfie gripped Tommy by the scruff of the neck, smashed his head against the wood and hurled him over the bar in one swoop. Glass shattered and before he knew it he had 4 of them on him, pounding at the sides of his ribs.  
Alfie took pain like a stone, he almost felt he deserved some after what he did to Cora and the slap she had given him wasn't nearly enough to ease his guilt.  
He knew if they thrashed it out the old fashioned way then both camps would be able to move on with a new found understanding.  
Eventually as he lay crumpled on the floor, blood oozing from his bottom lip and a swelling above his eye, he was heaved up by Tommy and the older Shelby brother Arthur, with one man under each of his armpits.

They propped him back up on a stool.

"Ok Alfie old boy. That settles it. You give us Twickenham in full, we will help you with the docks." Tommy said out of breath from the scuffle. His head oozing blood.

Alfie swallowed down his own blood, and Shelby passed him a hanky for his nose bleed.

Through laboured breaths and a wince he spoke shakily  
"Cora isn't fair game for blackmail." Alfie continued defiantly, knocking back more whiskey to dull the pounding that had already started in his head. 

He slapped Shelby on the shoulder, like a buddy would, now that they had got the violence they needed to out of the way, they could agree again. 

"Just like Grace isn't, or your son." 

And he hobbled from the inn with a look of satisfaction on his injured face. He wasn't normally a man of low class but he had found out about Tommy's own family from his spies, right after leaving the warehouse that afternoon.  
Yeah, if Tommy could try and use Alfie's girl as leverage, then he could play him at his own game to make sure it was a non starter.


	15. Chapter 15

Alfie drove to the whorehouse with Rosaleigh on his mind, or in his trousers. He hadn't been to her since the last time Cora had kissed him when he had made slow love to her and emptied a deposit of semen when he should've known better. 

She was just a crutch for his emotions and he was used to running to her when something went wrong. He had spent hours over the last couple of years ravishing her body using it like a machine and not noticing the woman behind the figure, much at all. Maybe he would've been better suited to a whore, she was more his class of people, less likely to need protection, and let's face it he'd never have to beg for a blow job after two years of marriage because he would just slip her ten Bob and she would be fair game. 

When he entered the house after his seven Knocks, he went up to the desk to speak to the trusty Harold. 

"What room?" He asked casually. 

"Ah you won't find miss Pilkington here at the moment Alfie son." He said solemnly. The man looked at him with a look of panic. He was either worried by Alfie's battered appearance or he was worried about the blood from it ruining his carpets. 

"What d'ya mean?" Alfie asked, surprised. She was always available, he had never known her not to be. Even when some punter was balls deep in her, Harold was under orders to interrupt and let Alfie take over. 

"Where is she?" He was worried for her a little bit, he had of course got to know her well over the last couple of years and she was the only whore that could make him cum in under 10 minutes flat. He was worried for his little Jimmy jangles between his legs.

"She's in a condition sir, can I offer you anyone else this evening? We are close to shutting up shop quite soon." The old man looked flustered and ready for the end of his shift no doubt. 

Alfie frowned. A condition, hmmph well he'd be damned if he knew what that meant. Maybe she had caught some sexual disease and was taken ill. 

"No no old boy, I'm good you know I only like my Rosa" he said, shaking his head.  
"You tell her I was asking after her now, and that I hope, God speed, that she gets well soon." He said as he left. 

Harold nodded his head. He had a feeling she wouldn't be well for at least another eight months. 

 

********************************

 

When Alfie got in he shivered at the cool temperature of his town house. He lit a fire in the lounge, poured himself some of his finest rum to anaesthetise his senses for the night and spent a while filling up the tin tub with steaming hot water. 

His body ached from the punches and he could already see bruises forming around his torso. A nice long soak was what he needed after an eventful day that had started off so well.  
As he lay bathing in the water his mind went straight to his new happy place. What a novelty it was that even thinking of the girl made him feel so carefree. He hadn't felt this way about a female ever in his life and he knew that had to count for something.  
Alfie didn't care about women, not in his nature was it! He had never even taken one home to his mum. He chuckled at the thought of his mum. She wouldn't be happy unless he brought home a proper Jewish girl. Kosher on every level. Boring, predictable and not what he fuckin well wanted. Cora gave him excitement at the same time as a privileged normality. He really could see himself marrying her, Jewish or not. But there was no way in hell she would forgive him a second time. The up and down dramatics of a gangster's life would have already scared her off and taken its toll on her pretty little ideology, she wouldn't want that life surely. 

Alfie slipped in some bath oil and smiled at his choice. He had three, given to him by his sister one Christmas and he had scoffed at her for buying him lady shit.  
She had insisted they were for men and left no lasting scent on your body but he had still been offended. 

One time when he hadn't replaced his soap, another need for a maid he realised, he had used the oils and found them quite relaxing. Now he used them every time he had a soak and she was right, because they didn't leave an odour. He had mint and teatree oil, which smelt like the beard wax he used anyway, then lavender and vanilla, which made him horny as hell, and a rose and honeysuckle.  
He went for the Rose, as it was what best reminded him of His Cora. 

Cora Cora Cora. He sighed as he lay in the water, the steam rising in the cold room and the smell of Roses enveloping him. 

He wasn't sure why certain floral scents had an aphrodisiac effect on him but as his hands lay by his sides in the tin tub, he found one snaking around to cup at his ball sack. It was heavy and full, since he hadn't had sex in over a week and had had to endure Cora grinding on him twice that day. 

He massaged it under the water, the oil he had used making his hand slippery and giving him just the right amount of lubrication as his fingers travelled to the base of his thick shaft. He ran his hand up the length of himself, feeling the hot heaviness in his fist as he hardened and it made him groan aloud, his head lolling backwards.  
As he started to pump himself, his hips bucking in a rhythm, water sloshing, he let his mind wander to Cora and the fancy skirts she had worn for their date at The Cove. 

He pictured them being the only ones in the place, that he owned it and he had taken her there to dance. Her favourite slow song filled his head as he remembered the feel of her fingertips playing with the hair at the nape of his neck. He remembered the heat as his cock had pushed between them both, her body tight against his and how she hadn't pulled away, instead making grinding movements to drive him crazy. 

As water splashed the sides, Alfie was like a feral beast bashing one out. He pumped hard and he pumped fast, desperate to bring himself some release and some kind of mad pleasure after a completely shitty end to the day. 

He was thinking of sitting her on the edge of the stage, and removing her boots and stockings with slow ease, whilst she let him ruffle his hands up her skirts to get to her centre. Alfie could see it happening clearly in his minds eye, as he put his shaggy head between her legs and licked at the swollen bead he found there, beneath flaps of wet flesh.  
And it did him in. He came with pulsating force and an overwhelming rush of pleasure that almost hurt it ached so much. Hot semen spurted a stream up his stomach and floated on top of the water.  
"Fuck" he managed out loud, pumping out the last remnants of his desire, her name across his lips. 


	16. Chapter 16

Alfie had rung Bennet up before he got in bed that night. It was late but Bennet was always available as expected, always at Alfie's beck and call like the position required. 

He had been worried when Alfie told him of the meet up with the Peaky Blinders and scolded him like an older brother for daring to go there alone. He was shocked when Alfie had insisted on him coming to get the Bakery keys come the morning and that he would be working from home whilst Bennet ran the roost.

That had never happened before. 

"Are you in a bad way Alfie. Do you need a doctor?" Bennet had asked. 

"No no, don't be daft Benny Boy. Do you think I'd let a few gypsies get one over on me? I could of knuckle dusted the lot of em, and I smacked Tommy's head off the bar I did! Believe me!" 

"Your legs not what it used to be. Your not fighting fit and 22 anymore Alfie".  
Alfie smirked but heeded the advice he knew already. The truth was he did feel like he had been hit by a train and he needed a day at home to recover. Plus he couldn't face that office and that empty second desk in the corner, devoid of all things beautiful. 

"I'll be in the day after next." He had grumbled before he hung up. 

********************************

Cora stood at the back of the queue with some of the men. She had started to get there later so she was at the back, besides Alfie was rarely on time and it was freezing on an early morning before the sun reared its head. She liked to be the last one in too so she could walk with him to the office and be on the receiving end of his coy morning glances. It always took Alfie a while to warm up and be relaxed around her. Usually it was around the second cup of coffee. She smiled. She wasn't mad at him anymore. She wanted to apologise for the slap and tell him she knew why he had said what he had.  
Alfie had never disrespected her, he hadn't meant to play with her emotions, she knew that deep down. He was the most caring, loveable, selfless rogue she had ever met. And she wanted him bad in every way. As a boss, as a partner, as a lover, as a wife. She was and always had been a free spirit and she was going to go after what she wanted despite the restrictions from her place in society.  
Alfie could take care of her in every way, she knew it. She just had to make others see it too. He had his own house, his own motor, his own businesses both legitimate and not, his own heavies, his own fortune she was sure, and she had the nest egg of her own if not. She could take care of him, like he needed. She could give him pancakes for breakfast, and mend and press his clothes ready for work. She could keep his accounts, and feed him the cake he loved on his break, and go home with him at shift end. There she could keep house, and make him kosher meals to his contentment before bathing him and laying with him every single night forever. That was the dream, she dozed. 

Speaking of dreaming... "MISSSS! Are yee coming in or not?" A loud voice shouted, snapping her back to reality. She had been that engrossed in her thoughts that she hadn't noticed Bennet arriving and opening up, or the line of bakery workers streaming into the building leaving her dawdling outside looking like she had some sort of mental handicap. She chuckled as she walked through. Love was a handicap. 

"Is Alfie late Arthur?" She asked Bennet. 

"No miss he won't be in today." 

"Oh?" She asked, surprised. From what she heard of Alfie he ran the bakery like an army regiment and never had a day off his duty unless his life depended on it. She hoped he hadn't done anything stupid or rash last night after leaving her. He had seemed beside himself and now she was worried.  
When she reached her desk she looked at the piles of neatly stacked paperwork and frowned. She went into her desk drawer and pulled out her employment contract. It had the employer details listed and a number and address for a certain Mr Solomons.  
She folded the paper up, put it into her petticoat and left the office. As she passed the floor there were a couple of animated wolf whistles on the way and it alerted Bennet from his work. 

"Miss Limbert" he called out. "begging your pardon ma'am but where are you going to?" 

"I just have a quick errand to run Arthur, be back within an hour. Everything's up to date. I'll explain myself to Alfie when he's back about why I had to run out" she said, and she left the bakery to track down a carriage to Alfie's house.

Alfie was laid in bed with his duvet gathered around his bare shoulders. He was cold and he thought about getting up to light the fire in his bedroom but he wasn't one to waste heat. His curtains were closed but his window was right above his quiet street and he heard a carriage pulling up outside. He kept his eyes closed, his temples aching from yesterday's beating and one of his eyes feeling slightly swollen. He hadn't yet looked in a mirror to assess the damage, but he knew it must've looked poor because when Bennett had arrived for the bakery key that morning he had fussed like an old woman. 

His thoughts were interrupted by the metal clanging of the door knocker. Three times and it made his brain throb.  
"Clack. Clack. Clack."  
Surely Bennett hadn't returned already. He was supposed to be proving he was capable to help run the bakery, and Alfie had written him into his will to take over should he be prematurely bumped off. He wouldn't give it to his brothers. They would piss away his fortune within a year, greedy squandering fools they were on account of never having nothing.  
Alfie had given them money, but they always came back for more when it had run out.  
And his sisters, well they were married off already to fancy Jewish bigwigs who would sooner shop him to old bill than break bread at the table. One was even married to a Rabbi. Alfie shivered at the thought, and the sound came again. 

"Clack clack clack"  
He groaned as he got up, he had linen pants on that clung to his hips, but his chest and his feet were bare, giving him goosebumps as he walked across the oak floor and down the stairway. 

He looked through the peephole in the door and saw a fascinator. With a feather. His stomach fell out of his arse.  
He opened the door groggy eyed and bushy haired and looked confusingly at Cora Limbert on his doorstep. 

Her face fell when she saw him. 

"Alfie!!! Oh Alfie what happened to you?" She sprung forward into him and clasped his jaw in her leather gloved hands. He pulled it defensively from her grip, feeling more than a little taken aback. 

"Are you ok?" She said looking worried sick. "No of course your not, oh Alfie who did this to you, do you need a doctor, I've done first aid I can help you I just need....."

"Fuck sake woman" he cut in. And she stilled. She was already over the threshold and she stayed glued to the spot her mouth agape as he slammed the door behind her in a swift movement. 

"Let me light a fire" he said, trudging past her and down the dimly lit corridor, passing a sideboard that held a plant and a telephone. The place was smart.  
He beckoned a gesture for her to follow him and she couldn't help but notice the old scars on his hunched back as well as new bruises. He was a human patchwork if she ever saw one. Beautifully flawed. 

She didn't say anything as she entered his lounge. It was light and airy and not what she had expected. It looked like a woman had decorated. His curtains were pea green with a branch pattern and the voiles at the windows were sheer and white letting in just the right amount of daylight.  
He lit a fire and they stayed in silence, as it roared to life, instantly warming the area they stood in. 

"I'm sorry" he said. And he looked devastated.  
"Don't be sorry Alfie, that's why I'm here. I was going to tell you at work today but..." 

"You went to work today?" Alfie asked, surprised.  
"Oh yes of course. You can't get rid of me so easily Solomons" she said as she removed her mink coat and vole and placed them on his brown armchair. 

"I'm not following. Last night you hated me. And rightfully so." He questioned trying to get his head around things. He put his fingers to the bridge of his nose and winced. It was all too much. 

"You look like your in pain Alfie, let me tend to you. Please?.. " she begged him. "I'll explain as I see to your face! Show me the medicine cupboard" she said to him, her voice taking on a mothering and authoritive tone. 

Alfie returned with a first aid box and a bowl of tepid water.  
He was humouring her because he had already had his share of beatings before and knew that all it took were a few hot baths and a good sinking of rum to get him through the following days and that recipe had always worked fine.  
He sat back on the sofa whilst she dipped cotton wool into the water and washed at a gash above his eyebrow.  
"That might scar you know Alfie, it looks like you need stitches, you gonna tell me who did it?" she questioned him.  
"I started it" he said. "And you don't go messing with a blinder when there's 3 more sat in the corner" he explained. "I asked for it" 

She sighed and he looked up into her eyes guiltily.  
"Alfie its ok, I know why you said you didn't want me." 

"I never said that." Alfie said instantly, his eyes boring into hers.  
"I said we should be friends, and I listed barriers to a romantic relationship, I ain't ever said I didn't want you." He clarified. 

She chuckled. "Well I suppose not."  
"So DO you want me then?" She asked him seriously. 

He didn't hesitate in his reply. "Of course I do. What kind of fool wouldn't woman? I was trying not to get you killed." He said, confirming what she already knew.  
"I'm a bad man Cora. I've done unspeakable things. I was dragged up in desperate poverty, I'm damaged in the mind from the war, and I've made ALOT of enemies. You might think you want a bad boy, a gangster to free you of your posh life but the glamour is far and few between. The things I've done..... If I told you, you would walk right out the door now and never want to see me again." He said sadly. 

"Well try me." She answered after a pause.  
"Tell me the most terrible thing you've ever done. And let me love you anyway" 

The air was thick with lust between them and Alfie was on her before she registered what was happening.  
His weight crashed down on her slight body, pinning hers beneath his own as his hands reached up to madly claw at her hair. She tried to sit up but he kissed her back down into the cushions, his beard allover her face, scratching, chafing as he pressed his lips down on her. She accepted his tongue, her hands reaching round to find his bare back, her fingertips up his spine gave him goosebumps and he knew with the fire roaring at the side of them, this time he wasn't cold. 

She moaned into his kiss as he slowed down on her, his initial passion subsiding to a slow lustful kiss, wet and sloppy against her lips. She licked into his mouth, reaching up to unpin her hair in one movement. As her brown waves fell, Alfie put his hands in to her scalp, kneading and tugging and loving the soft feel of the strands through his fingers. Suddenly, and all too soon for his liking, Cora pushed him from her body with an almighty heave, gasping for breath as he looked at her with a desire she had never come across before in her life. 

" Alfie?" She said.  
"Take me to bed".

And he nodded.


	17. Chapter 17

He led her to his bedroom and her heart was hammering. She had heard stories of great pain from women who had been broken in, especially Annie who had married and been taken at a young age. It wasn't proper for ladies to speak of sexual conduct, but of course they did when they knew the men were not in earshot and with 2 older sisters she had been witness to many an explicit conversation. None of them talked of the pleasure that the men did when they discussed it. But so many women had that many children she had decided that it couldn't be all that bad or they wouldn't keep doing it.

When he closed the door behind them in his room, he went straight to the fire to heat up the cold room wishing he had done it earlier now.

His bed covers were strewn allover his mahogany four poster bed and the royal blue drapes that hung down looked like they could use a good dusting. He had a set of matching drawers in the corner, and a rocking chair atop of an embroidered rug. 

She perched herself at the edge of his bed, glad that it seemed comfortable, and removed her cardigan, folding it into a neat little square whilst he tended to the fire. There was an awkward silence now in the air that neither one of them knew how to break but she knew that she was going to have to. 

"I'm a virgin Alfie... In case you weren't sure" she said meekly, her eyes cast down to her lap. 

"Never been touched?" he said, knelt in front of the coals, whilst glancing back at her nonchalantly. He had expected as much, being the daughter of a gangster. No one was brave or stupid enough out of wedlock. Except him.

"No sir, not ever" she replied, still not looking at him. He decided she needed to stop calling him sir or he might not be gentle in his use of her.

He had slept with a virgin before but that was when the girl in question had being highly intoxicated after a society party and the only indication of her innocence was the blood stained sheets the morning after and her comments of shame at what her future husband would think. Alfie couldn't even remember breaking her in. 

This was different, because it wasn't about him getting his end away, he actually wanted Cora to feel pleasure from what he was going to do to her body and to never forget who had been the first inside of her.  
When he hoped silently that he would be the last as well he squeezed his eyes shut at the way his thoughts were headed. 

Too serious. Too soon.

He knew she had already responded well to his touch and to his erections and that she had a good little idea of how to grind on his lap. Her kisses were seductive and she knew how to run her fingertips allover the sensitive places of his body. He thought she would be fine if he loosened her up enough.  
He went over and sat beside her. 

"And you're sure this is what you really want?" He asked her looking into her eyes.  
"You can't get innocence returned to you if you decide you want it back. It's gone forever woman. It may be that any future suitors wouldn't have you". She had already thought about that.  
He wasn't trying to put her off but he needed to make sure she was well aware of what she consented to. He wanted to be inside her more than anything in the world and he wanted to make her come apart in a passionate way to seal the feelings they seemed to have for each other. It felt like magnetism. Electricity. That damn witchcraft. 

Cora nodded her head.

So Alfie set to work, slowly raising his rough hand to her jawline and kissing her on the lips. He moulded his mouth around hers, tugging on her bottom lip slightly with his teeth and breathing his hot breath into her mouth. He felt her own breath pouring back into his and her hands reach his chin, hidden behind a beard that was far too long at the moment.  
As they kissed, Cora felt the heat between her legs. A burning fluttery sensation she supposed was arousal and as he unbuttoned her blouse slowly from the top, she started at the bottom, letting their fumbling fingers meet in the middle. When it was off, he stopped kissing her to look at the white silk camisole she wore beneath, and he licked his lips, filled with desire as he worked the straps down her tiny arms, skimming her porcelain skin and making her shiver at his touch. 

When that was off it left her bra, and that was silk too, and white with lace and he didn't think he had seen something so delicate and pretty surrounding breasts. He unclasped the back whilst watching for her reactions. She didn't take her eyes off his eyes and he had to tear them away from her gaze as he peeled down the cups to reveal her mounds. Each one was full and heavy, centred with rosy nipples that peaked in hard points due to the cold, or her arousal. He put his palm against the flesh of one, fondling at it gently and running a calloused thumb over the end of her nipple. Cora sighed. And he looked up for her approval as his head went down and he took the other one between his teeth gently. She let out a gasp and looked down at him, closing her eyes again as she felt the sensation of his wet swirly tongue, flicking circles around her nipple. 

Alfie was horny now. His cock was as hard as stone beneath his cloth pants and he told her in a raspy tone to get into bed. She pulled off her own shoes, leaving on her stockings and skirts, and climbed under the covers, laying vertical with her head on the pillows. Alfie always fluffed and layered his pillows so she was propped up enough to have a full view of what he was doing.

With the curtains closed it was quite dark in the room, the only light from the fire, so Alfie walked round to the drawers and lit the lantern that sat atop of them. Combined with the flames, It cast a nice orange glow across his bed. 

As he came back around to the other side, she watched him remove his pants as his dick sprang free. She had seen one before by accident, a toilet incident at her summer school but never in all its glory like the weapon Alfie had between his legs. It was thick and long, and slightly red, engorged with blood she realised, as it stood erect on a bed of brown fuzzy hair.

"I won't use it til your ready" he said sensing her nerves. And she nodded.  
"I know" she said back to him. 

He got into bed and pulled the covers up over them both. He was completely naked and he needed her the same. His big hands snaked beneath her skirts, a fingertip running up the length of her thigh, to the top of her stockings. He pulled down the waistband of them, taking her cotton panties with it, as he dragged them back down her legs slowly. She wriggled beneath him, helping him take them off and unclasped her own skirts at the front. Foraging beneath the layers he hooked his fingers into the band of the skirts next and pulled them down in the same way. He held them in his hands once they were off and threw them to the other side of the room. 

"Fucking finally" he said, drinking in her naked body beneath him.  
Cora chuckled, glad that the half embarrassing moment of revealing herself to him was made light of. 

"Been waiting ages for this." He said as she laughed again. "And I love to hear you laugh" he whispered, dipping his head back down and burrowing his tickly beard into the nape of her neck. Her hairs stood on end. She was enjoying every sweet second of his attention. 

He kissed her gently on her lips.  
"Let me get you ready?" He asked her softly, caressing the hair that skimmed her forehead. 

"How?" She said innocently I'm not sure wh..."

"I can use my fingers on you, I can use my tongue, my lips. I can rub you in circles until your brain hurts.... Just ... Let me? I'll do whatever it takes for however long you want me to" 

"Ok" was all she said and it was his green light. 

He looked up at her as he moved beneath the covers, keeping his eyes on her as he kissed her stomach, skimming past the small bush of light curls below it as he parted her thighs. She felt embarrassed and involuntarily attempted to squeeze them shut again but he simply held them open with tender force and blew air across her sex 

Oh. She thought. Ok that felt good. And she relaxed into the mattress. 

Alfie used his fingertips first, rubbing with soft pressure at the folds of flesh between her legs. When she started to moan he knew he was onto a good technique and so he dragged a digit downwards to part her inner lips and feel her arousal. 

He pulled the covers off of them both, the room now warm, and placed them on one side so he could see what he was doing. He was going to have to take his time here and do it properly. He hadn't eaten a woman out for a long time, becoming selfish in his desperate quest for his own orgasms, and he forgot how good a cunt felt when it was dripping wet on his fingers. He pushed the tip of his index finger ever so slightly inside her, she moaned but her walls loosened and it went in with ease. 

Keeping it inside her, he found her little pearl with the end of his tongue, already engorged and waiting for his touch. She gasped at the feel of him there, a little shockwave of pleasure pooling in her groin every time his tongue went back to that spot. He sucked it inwards forming suction with his Lips and she could feel sweet achey pleasure again as he let go and placed the flat of his tongue there instead. His finger pushed further inside her against the ache, helped in by the wetness and he began to thrust it gently, before adding another one and lapping at the little pearl once more. 

He didn't have to ask if she liked it, his beard was wet with her juices and her moans were getting louder, her writhing more uncontrolled. Each stroke of his tongue was well placed. Licking her slowly, tasting her excitement as it rose higher and higher.  
She could feel something was happening, something coming to a head at her apex, she wasn't sure if she needed the toilet or if this was normal but it felt like you were about to let go after a long day of holding it in. She tried to prevent it, just in case but she couldn't stop it and before she knew it she was gripping at Alfie's head as he sucked at her, her orgasm crashing like a tidal wave over her senses, rolling out and wrenching her, wet and achey and tight. She didn't need the toilet then.  
When it stopped she was breathless, left totally bewildered that you could feel that good from someone just indulging you in one act of intimacy. If that wasn't even sex then she needed him inside her right now.

"Alfie" she said through hushed breaths.  
"Take me..... I need you to take me now" she said. He didn't need telling twice, he knew he would nut without touching her if he didn't hurry up. He had just given her, her first ever orgasm and he was feeling pretty damn Neanderthal. 

He kissed her hard and she could taste the salty metallic taste of herself on his lips. She was too lost in lust to be fazed and grabbed at his hair as he lifted one of her legs higher so that he could position himself at her opening. She braced herself for the agony promised, and when she felt the tip of his penis skimming her she had no idea how the girth of his helmet shaped end would even fit inside her body but she trusted him to do what he needed to, to make them both feel good. To connect them in the most intimate way possible. She trusted him to make love to her. 

Alfie was revelling in the feeling of getting his dick wet, but he knew he had to take this steady, so he flattened out, letting their stomachs and chests mash together, his beard tickling at her neck as he placed delicate kisses on it.  
"Ohhhh Cora.... Cora...Baby" he whispered.  
"Alfie" she moaned. "Put it in".

He held himself at the base of his cock and pushed. He met resistance and he pushed a bit further anyway, feeling his tip get past it.  
She groaned beneath him, writhing. 

"You ok?" He asked raspily.  
"Keep going" she winced, not sure if the burning pressure was pain or pleasure anymore, perhaps a mixture of both.

He forced his way in further, his shaft disappearing inside her, her silence worrying him slightly, until she let go of her breath. She grabbed round at his buttocks and pulled him in, and he slipped in further until he was in her up to the hilt. He didn't move, he let her adjust to the size of him, to the foreign feeling of a cock inside her, before starting to ease back out again. She wailed lowly, but she looked up into his eyes and as he looked at them he knew she was saying carry on without the words.  
He eased out further, and then slammed back in, making her lashes flutter and her cheeks flush as she moved up the bed.  
He thrust gently then, faster, and the soreness subsided, taken over by the biting ache she had felt building before. The tingles and the pressure and the amazing. 

"Faster Alfie!" She said caressing his lower back and ass cheeks, and so he sped up, hardening his attempts as he felt like his cock was been massaged in a warm dough-like vice. She was so tight it nearly hurt him, had he had foreskin he felt sure it would have been pulled too tightly over him and stopped his circulation altogether. It was absolutely exquisite, not like any intercourse he had ever felt before with anyone. 

Alfie wanted to cum already and he was normally quite the endurer. He wanted to fill her with his seed until it was dribbling down her thighs. Knowing that she had never had a spill in her before, never felt the hot spurt of semen into her insides, was driving him absolutely insane.  
The willpower it took him not to fuck her senseless into the mattress was immense.  
But he held back, he didn't want her to be in agony for days if he slammed her too hard but in ways he wanted her to think about him every time she moved, the sweet soreness a reminder of their connection even after it had physically ended. 

Cora was overwhelmed, she knew now why people made so many babies, and why there were so many men willing to pay for extra time with whores if their wives weren't entertaining it.  
More than anything she was loving what it was doing to Alfie above her. His face was contorted, his mouth open and lips wet looking down on her like she was the one.

He was so macho. So tough and gruff and strong, yet he was making pathetic wailing sounds as their hips smashed together, mewling and breathless on top of her. She had no idea the act could make a man come apart in this way. That her body could do this to his. 

As she drunk him in, meeting his thrusts now, she felt wet and achey and that now too familiar pressure building.  
"Alfie I'm..... It's gonna"  
He sped up, he had been holding out waiting for her and he knew it was coming for them both. She began to contract on him, her back arching and her fingernails digging into his bruised back and he pulled his member from her so fast and so close to the edge that he spilt on her stomach, covering it in a stream of clear semen. It had taken all his resistance and will not to spill into the plush walls of her tight little pussy. 

He flopped down beside her in bed, absolutely spent and his chest heaving. Then he reached beneath his head and pulled the pillowcase from its pillow. He mopped his secretions up from her stomach and she giggled.  
It was a good sound. He was scared she was going to feel violated afterwards, or upset in some way that he had "taken her flower" as the women called it. He didn't want her to regret it. 

When he sagged back down, pulling the covers over them both once more, she laid delicately on his furry chest, feeling his heart jumping beneath her ear. 

"Do you love me Alfie??" She blurted out before she could stop it. 

He paused. His throat dry.  
Well he supposed now was the time to confess. 

"Yeah. Yeah I think I do lass." 

It was enough for her, she snuggled into his furry neck and shut her eyes sleepily, the sweet soreness already apparent between her thighs.  
After a long pause, her breathing evened out the same as his own, and he was just about to fall asleep himself when she spoke again. 

"I love you too." She said, and his moustache twitched as the corners of his mouth turned upwards to form a smile.


	18. Chapter 18

BANG! Alfie ducked but it was no use. The shrapnel showered him, flecks of burning metal cascading onto his back. He carried on running, every now and then falling down a ditch in the squelching mud, his ankles twisting back and forth in unnatural positions as he scrambled. He could hear other people, he could hear them like an echo reverberating through his mind but he couldn't see because of the dirt and gravel in his eyes. He was covered in a blanket of dust and they were calling for him, they were trapped beneath rubble and dead bodies.... Alfie!! Allllfiiiieeee

"Alfie" Cora said shaking him. He opened his eyes and realised he was covered in a sheen of perspiration. He let his eyes and his mind adjust to the dark room and then he relaxed. 

Just a dream. No Flanders anymore. 

Cora looked nervy at the side of him, a look of concern etched on her pretty little face.  
He smiled at her sweetly, reassuring her that he was ok.  
"Morning." He managed closing his eyes again, remembering what they had done. A warm contentment filled his belly. 

She chuckled. "Alfie it's not morning, it's mid afternoon... We fell asleep for a couple of hours after...." She trailed off, her cheeks pink. 

"You need to bathe those wounds again Alfie, they might get infected."

He opened one eye, the one with the gash, to look at her. She was fully dressed and her hair was tied up again. How long had she watched him sleep? He didn't like that thought. He was plagued by nightmares and insecure about people witnessing him and making judgement on his weaknesses. 

She was leant over him and he dragged her back down on top of his chest, his hand around the back of her neck to pull her in. 

"Gimmme some kisses" he muttered whilst rubbing his beard all over her face.  
She pulled away laughing, feigning protest at his tickles and then she yanked on his beard and he bit against her neck and growled. Little red riding hood wants the big bad wolf does she?"

"Little red is going to go back to the office" she said as she sat up and he moved his hands beneath the covers to play with his tackle. 

He furrowed his brow in disapproval... "No you're not, I'm your boss and I order you to stay here and attend to the bosses needs" he said, still fumbling. 

She smiled at his crude action and chauvinistic remark but it didn't reach her eyes.  
"Alfie what are we?" She said.  
Those words would once have sent a shockwave of horror through his veins after a romp, but he only though of reassuring her that he wanted her and her alone. 

"What you mean? What are we? We're together! You're my woman, you're my girl." He sat up and took her jaw, kissing her softly on the lips. 

It was what she needed to hear.

"Ok so no more messing me around? You asked to court me and I accept. So that's what we are - I wanna give my all to you Alfie, I don't care what people think. And besides, now you've laid with me it's not proper to cast me aside."  
Alfie smirked at the thought of all the women he had done that exact thing to. He wouldn't do it to her. 

"There's nothing proper about me little red" he smirked as he started his trail of kisses all over again. 

********************************

When they returned to the Bakery, Cora couldn't wipe the smile from her face. Alfie had insisted that she wait for him and help herself to whatever she could scramble together from the pantry, and she had to admit she had been hungry.  
She ate cheese and seeded bread whilst he bathed and dressed himself in his usual attire. When he was ready he looked like the proper Jewish gentleman he normally was and she felt privileged that she was able to see underneath the mask and that stupid rimmed hat to the teddy bear underneath. He could remain a wolf to the world if he wanted as long as he was loving and tender to her.

They had garnered a few craned necks as they walked back into work together, Cora had blushed thinking it might look obvious that she had let him take her. Of course it wasn't, but her skirts were crumpled and her hair wasn't the same as it had been this morning if anyone took the time to notice. She felt like she had a glow as well, a glow of a woman who had been made love to by a man. He had made love to her like he would never make love again and she felt like being beneath him was the best place to be in the world. She already wanted to be back there.

For the rest of the working day she stuck to her duties, typing efficiently and filing the new orders that had come in at lunch time during their absence. Alfie was on the phone a lot, but just hearing his voice in the same room was enough. She thought about how lonely her ears would feel if she never heard his voice again, but she cast that thought aside, why wouldn't she? 

When he had tied up his loose ends he sighed and turned his attention on her once more. She was humming to the low buzz of music from the radio and chewing on a pencil. She looked radiant, he really had landed on his feet with her and he knew it, but he didn't doubt they would have to face a lot of difficulties if they were serious about being a couple. The world wouldn't want them together. And the world wasn't a beast to be tamed easily.  
The pencil chewing gave him an idea. He stood up, holding one of his own and walked over to her desk. Standing at the side of it he had his arms folded authoritatively, and she lifted her head to look up at him, waiting for him to tell her what he wanted.

"Yes sir?" She asked him when he didn't, a small smile playing on her lips. 

"Dropped my pencil" he said seriously.  
She watched as Alfie lifted the pencil to a height and then let it drop to the floor, clattering and rolling a few centimetres away. He stared her down with an unforgiving gaze.

"What do you want me to do about it.... Sir?" She accentuated the last word and his nostrils flared in primal response. 

"I want you to bend over and fetch me it... There's a good girl" he said, huskily, unfolding his arms and scratching at the scruff on his face. His psoriasis was starting to play up. 

Cora got up and went over to where the pencil had halted. She stepped over it and continued on, and he raised an eyebrow behind her back, curious to see her next move.  
She reached the door and twisted the lock, before returning to the pencil in the middle of the room and turning her back on him once more. 

He watched as she hitched her layers of skirts up and held them by her hips, exposing her slim legs in her stockings and the black cotton panties he had removed with his own hands earlier.  
He leant himself onto her desk, surprised by her sudden boldness now he had brought down her barriers in such a way.  
She bent herself over, her buttocks in her panties exposed to him, and picked up the pencil slowly. Taking it in hand, she straightened her skirts and took herself over to him, standing between his legs and holding the pencil up to his face.

"Where shall I put it sir?" She asked with an innocent tone. 

"Fuck the pencil" he said as he pulled her into him, his erection pressed between them and the pencil clattering loudly to the floor.  
He held onto her behind her skirts, their kiss passionate as the heat radiated off them both. His breath hitched when she put her hand to his pants and stroked his member over the material barrier.  
Alfie felt such mad passion for her but it was laced with a soft and protective aura, he wanted to fuck her so hard she was hurting but then love her so tenderly afterwards that he made it all better. He did not know the why or how, how this one woman had been the one to make him want to commit, but she had come into his life at just the right time and that's exactly what he wanted to do. 

He broke away from the kiss.

"Can you cook?" He asked and she chuckled at the random question. 

"Oh yeah I can cook, and bake, and knit and sew. I can keep house, press linen, and mend and I can do it all in my underwear if your looking for a housewife Alfie.... " he raised an eyebrow, whoa, he wasn't saying that. Not yet. Was he?

She laughed then, a girlish devilish giggle that he wanted to bathe in.  
He tickled under her ribs as she squealed and tittered away from him. 

"Chase me" she said, a glint in her eyes.  
"I would darling, and I'd catch you as well. But me sciatica's playing up" he said, a smirk on his face. 

"Ohhhh I see... The ailments of an old man?" She mocked.  
"Who can't keep up with his young counterpart? Is that it? She mocked again. 

His own eyes glinted at the way she teased him. He couldn't imagine ever feeling bored in her presence. If they weren't wrapped in each others lips they were playing remark badminton that added to the want to join lips again. He was mad on her. All of her. 

"Oh I can keep up with you love, the question is wether you're gonna be able to keep up with me now you know the way of the world" and he winked at her predatory look. 

"Speaking of old men. It's my birthday next week." 

"Oh....?" 

"Yeah yeah." I don't usually bother with it and that, you know. Just another day. This time though, well me family - well they wanna throw a bit of a shin dig, on account of the 4-0. I mean if you want to come." 

Cora was shocked he was asking. Meet his parents? So soon. Her mind flicked to religion.  
"Won't they mind that I'm not Jewish?" She asked.

"Oh yeah... The mother will mind. She'll mind very much, but it's alright ainnit? You can be Jewish for a day. Welcome to the world of roleplay" he said rubbing his hands together with glee. 

"Alfie I'm not pretending to be Jewish" she said smirking.  
"Yerrrl not get thru the front door if you don't" he said curtly. 

"Practice your shalom"

"Alfie no" she laughed. 

"Go on say it, Little Jewish girl" and he tickled her again, his fingers digging in her ribcage, his arm snaking around her front until he whipped her round and held her back close to his chest, her bottom against his stiffness.

"Shalom Alfie, SHALOM!" She managed louder as his torturous fingers dug in, he was been rough but she liked it. 

The bell to signal shift end sounded.  
"N'awwww" he said sulkily.  
"I was just about to see what else I could make you do with these fingers".  
Cora shook her head, smiling. Just what had she got herself into with this man.  
He was wicked.

As they walked out across the Bakery, Bennet attempted to give Alfie a sealed telegram.  
"Sir you might wanna read that it's just been brought in. By a woman." He said.  
"A woman?" Alfie quizzed. His mind flittered to old Polly Shelby for some reason, after his dealings with her nephew yesterday and his spine shuddered. He'd made the mistake of fucking her once, mad bitch held a gun to his head when he told her that's all it was supposed to be.  
A woman, a woman. She wasn't a woman she was a bloke in drag. 

"Go on Cora love, go get in the motor, Bennet you take her out would ya, I wanna see her home." 

Bennet looked suspiciously at the pair, not wondering or realising yet that they were now keeping company, as Cora's lips twisted at the thought of a woman sending him telegrams.

He did as he was told as Alfie opened the note whilst switching off lights on the stone walls around him. It was now a sight darker, and he squinted at the unkempt scrawl on the paper.

It said simply. 

"Get in touch as soon as you possibly can. It's urgent and it won't keep. It needs to be this week. 

Rosa"

Alfie frowned in confusion. What in God's name did she want?!


	19. Chapter 19

Alfie sat at his desk twiddling the telegram around his fingers. It was rolled up and by now it was torn and tatty.  
He had pondered on it for a week now, he hadn't responded or decided whether he even would. He was worried about her news, whatever it was. He suspected she wanted money at first, she was used to his income and since he had stopped attending her, she was likely to have felt the fall.  
He didn't owe her anything but he thought about sending her money all the same.  
She had made his meagre existence bearable before Cora. But he didn't miss her. 

He had laid awake at night for the last two, thinking maybe she was in trouble with men she couldn't deal with, or needed advice on a business venture.  
Maybe she had been approached by one of his enemies for information. 

Each theory got more far fetched but each one seemed far more appealing than what he suspected she really wanted. That was a shit storm that he wasn't ready to consider. 

Today was his birthday though, so he would cast aside the nagging in his gut and enjoy the evening.  
He had relieved Cora of her duties an hour earlier, paying for her a carriage home so that she may change and be ready when he picked her up for the gathering.

They had spent the last week wrapped around each other in a series of passion-drenched trysts. He had taken her out for romantic dinner twice, and last night she had attempted to cook him a proper Jewish meal after researching his faith in the local library. He had laughed when she brought the cook book into the office and asked him what he wanted her to make.  
He admired her willingness to adopt his ways, but the truth was he didn't care much for his religion. It binded him to God and God would never forgive the sins that he had committed. Nahhh, he was destined for damnation he was.

However, he again humoured her, letting her revel in trying to impress him and the truth was it really had. Her first attempt at pastrami and potato pancakes had tasted almost as good as her pussy did an hour later. 

Since the day he broke her in, they had fucked multiple times.  
They had shared a bath together where she laughed at his oils and then spent a great deal of time massaging them into the tissues in his shoulders while he groaned in ecstasy.  
They had spent hours in his bed, soaking up every inch of each others bodies, learning as they went along the way to heighten each other's senses as much as they could bear. He had shown her the way to take him to the back of her throat, and he loved the way that, even with no direction, she eagerly kissed and licked his length whilst doing it.

He had been surprised when she mounted his lap in the kitchen after coffee one evening mid-week, lifting her skirts and revealing the lack of underwear she bore underneath. Feeling the weight of a woman on his thighs, he stood to instant attention as she proceeded to rip down his britches and impale herself with his stiff member. He about lost his mind when she started that agonisingly slow bounce and grind. He had cum in minutes.  
He was so enthralled in her that he hadn't attended to much business at all, and that had resulted in a stolen shipment up North and more than a few tense calls from the blinders in relation to releasing Twickenham.  
His professionalism that he held in such high regard, was slipping.  
He had dealings to pick back up quickly and he decided that Monday he would get back to the reality he knew and that meant he would have to face Rosa.

Besides, so much time with Cora wasn't going down well with her father either. Alfie made sure that the lady was home by 11pm each evening as required but the past 7 evenings he had been aware of the ever existing shadows outside his home that were reporting every detail of their comings and goings like an ear wig embedded into John Limberts ear.  
Alfie needed to take Limbert down. There was no way he would accept him and Cora and he knew if he was such a pivotal figure, controlling the docks he was still somebody with a voice and unlimited heavies.  
If he knocked him down a peg or two, took the docks from right under his nose, there would be nothing he could do or say when he asked Cora to marry him. Because that was the plan, he had already decided on it. 

He wanted to take Cora as a wife. 

Mrs Cora Solomons. The very sound of it made his penis hard and his chest a-flutter. She was his and he wanted everyone to know it. 

That part started tonight with his family. 

********************************

Cora was so nervous at the side of him that she was babbling. Endless word vomit that he didn't care to decipher - he just half listened whilst staring out of the carriage.  
They were on their way to his parents house and he checked the time quickly, via his new gold pocket watch that Cora had presented him with on her doorstep.  
The thought was flattering. He hadn't the heart to tell her he had ten more in a drawer at home. She was his present and she was enough. But he still couldn't exorcise Rosa from his mind. 

If he had knocked up a whore then all hell would break loose. Abortion wasn't legal and so, many whores refused the remedial procedure that took place on the black market, or more specifically an unqualified doctors experiment table.  
It was well known the amount of women who had died at the hands of this act, wether from the deed of the butcher himself or from the spread of infection afterwards. Some were left scarred for life, their futures ruined on professional and personal levels. 

All this meant that they usually had the baby. And brought the bastard up either alone in the gutter or with the financial help of the man that had caused the mistake.  
Alfie hoped to God above that Rosa wasn't with child. And if she was he hoped that she didn't actually think he could be the father. It would ruin him. It would ruin what he hoped was happening with Cora. She would never accept a marriage proposal from a man paying child support to a wench. Rosa was a reminder of everything he no longer wanted to be. How ironic would it be if it haunted him for the rest of his life? 

He put it to the back of his mind again and squeezed Cora's fingers that were laced with his own on his lap. She was talking about Passover and so he stopped her with a grimace just as the carriage drew to a halt outside the house. 

"Here, you'll need this" he said, handing her a small hip flask full of brandy.  
"Why would I need alcohol before I even get inside Alfie? I'll pass thanks" she said, disapprovingly.  
He held his hands up in defeat.

"Don't say I didn't warn you."

He reached for her hand to help her down from the carriage and she looked up at the house in front of her in awe. Alfie's house was no slum but this house was on a scale of one of her father's.. Either they were a rich family of their own accord or Alfie had poured his fortune into them and this property. It was grand and she suddenly felt even more nervous. 

As they went through the iron gate, a servant appeared at the door dressed in finery and Cora really was dumbfounded. Alfie noticed the look on her face and smirked. The look of a rich girl impressed? 

"They don't usually have a butler Cora, it's for the party. Me mother's gonna be showing off to the community. I've never brought a woman here before either, they will be on pins waiting in there and out to impress! C'mon!" 

She melted at that line and she relaxed slightly but inside she was still incredibly nervous. Alfie hadn't yet told his parents that his new partner was not Jewish, and he told her to expect hostility from his mother in particular and maybe his aunt when they found out.  
It was not a good footing for meeting the possible in-laws and she wanted so badly to impress them for Alfie's sake. 

She hitched up her skirts to go up the steps and took a deep breath as they entered at the top. Maybe she should've taken a swig of that brandy after all. 

********************************

If the civilised entry had given Cora an idea about the inside of the party- it was the wrong one. Inside the place was chaotic. 

As soon as he led her inside she had a dog around her ankles, a scruffy lurcher that was making its getaway from several children who were screaming and bustling after it with maddening eyes.  
Cora stepped with nimble feet around them, as Alfie didn't so much as bat an eye lid, remaining completely indifferent to the noise and mayhem. 

The butler took his hat from his hands as he removed his coat and handed it over with his cane. The poor man struggled with the load and Cora didn't like the fact that Alfie left him to it to help her remove hers. She wrinkled her nose at his lack of courtesy.  
Once they were devoid of outer wear she was led on Alfie's arm down the hall to what she presumed was a lounge. She could hear upbeat jazz music and it felt out of place and informal in such a grand house. 

She realised as she entered into a rabble of Jews, that this was the general consensus for the whole evening. The People here didn't belong in the finery that surrounded them, and it was obvious to her that they were lower class workers thrown into an upper class world.  
She really should ask Alfie about his past. He was a closed book and she had spent so much time talking and talking about her own life that she hadn't realised she knew nothing of his until this very moment. 

When Alfie entered, as if my magic every head in the room turned.  
Straight away he was bombarded with attention and she was simply shoved to one side.  
Women jostled round him, older ladies, younger ladies, plump ones, thin ones, ones in shawls and ones in hats.  
After a moment of hurried kisses and pleasantries, the crowd suddenly parted and made way for a slight woman, who was wrinkled and dark haired. She bore no resemblance to Alfie but as she kissed him on each cheek and pulled him into an embrace, her head turned and she looked straight at Cora.  
Her eyes were familiar. They were Alfie's and she knew instantly this was his mother. They bore into her just like his own eyes did but there was no desire there and without it, they burned into the back of her skull. The woman pulled away from her son without taking her eyes from Cora's face, which was now flushed red and staring at her hands, as she felt the rough warmness of Alfie's take hers. 

"Mother this is the other woman in me life, this is Cora. Cora Limbert" he said proudly, as Cora brought her eyes back to the woman intent on staring her down. A few of the male heads in the room turned to look at the mention on her surname.

"Pleased to meet you, I'm sure." The woman said, her voice like that of a snake, slithery and slimy and not to be trusted. She held out her hand for Cora to shake and the two women smiled without the expression reaching their eyes.  
Cora immediately felt uneasy around the mother and it wasn't a nice feeling. She had expected frosty but this was something a little more sinister, she couldn't put her finger on it.  
Alfie hadn't seemed to notice anything untoward.  
"Cora this is me mother, Abigail" he introduced, "and some of my gum beating sisters" he frowned as they gathered around ready to pounce.

Cora was surrounded by the young women, who pulled her away to talk dresses and music, but she kept glancing back to his mother, her hostility like an elephant in the room and an automatic thorn in her side.

It was nice to see Alfie comfortable. He was laughing, sat down at the table surrounded by food and fine wine.  
It was a whole new relaxed angle to him and as she sat at the side of him she couldn't imagine him as the tough gangster and business man he was outside of these walls. His mother's gaze kept on flicking between Alfie and herself and she felt the unwavering attention even more so when she and him interacted, as he whispered in her ear or kissed her atop of her head.  
When dinner was served Cora was shocked at the table manners of the family. They were surrounded by the proper cutlery but the hands dove for dumplings and chicken legs were picked up and devoured with bare fingers. It was like no one had been fed for a month and Cora made a mental note to ask Alfie about this when they departed. 

She ate silently and listened to the nearby conversations. As they waited for coffee afterwards, a gentleman dressed rather like Alfie, who sat beside her, spoke lowly into her ear. 

"You're doing ok" he whispered.  
Cora looked at him surprised and gave him a small smile. She wasn't sure what to say in return.  
"It's not easy, she hates me too" he said.  
"Who?" Said Cora quietly, glancing at Alfie and turning back when she saw that he was talking to one of his brothers at the side of him. 

"Abigail. She hates me. I'm married to Annabelle, third youngest." He explained further, his voice staying low.  
"I wasn't Jewish. Let's just say I wasn't welcome."  
Cora raised an eyebrow, the man at the side of her looked more Jewish than Alfie did, with bushy black beard and kippah on top of his head. 

She looked up at it and he smirked.  
"It was a case of no conversion no marriage and I suspect you will be given the same ultimatum. Of course, Alfred's not the type of man to take orders from a woman. Even his own mother. So you might be able to hang on to your Christianity, but she'll never accept you" he carried on.  
"It was easier for me to conform. She isn't a woman to be trifled with" he warned her. 

Cora gulped down a swig of wine. 

As the night bore on she discovered that Alfie's dad, also named Alfie was wheelchair bound after an old fighting injury that wasn't expanded on, and he was a warm and friendly gentleman that didn't seem to fit well with the ambience of the mother. 

She spoke to all of Alfie's sisters, and all of Alfie's brothers wives, interestingly noting that Alfie was the only one of ten children not to be married. The men didn't tend to converse with her but she received a couple of friendly nods and a smile as she said excuse me to go to the bathroom. 

When she was alone, she breathed deeply and her chest heaved. The anxiety wasn't shifting. This evening would've been quite enjoyable had she not been murdered by eyesight by Alfie's stuck up mother. Just what was her problem? she wondered as there was suddenly a bold knock at the door. 

When she left the bathroom she wasn't surprised to see Abigail was the one waiting for her. She felt a showdown on the cards from the moment of the introduction but it didn't hinder her worry. She wondered if Alfie might come to her rescue on horseback like her Prince Charming in a world of dark fantasy.

"Abigail" Cora said sweetly, dipping into a small curtesy as a sign of respect. 

"Madam will do" the woman said in frosty response.  
"I've been meaning to talk to you about your intentions with my son" she said, getting straight to the point. 

They were stood close to each other in the hallway and Cora wished she was anywhere else in the world but here alone with this woman. 

"Intentions?" She replied innocently. She wasn't going to play her cold game. 

"Yes. What do you intend to use Alfred for?" 

"Use him?" Cora screwed up her face in confusion. 

"His fortune? His social accolade? Perhaps you're a pawn in a rich man's game? Setting out to take him down. I know who you are." She said her eyes narrowed and a finger now pointed near her face. 

Cora was taken aback. 

"I have no intentions regarding Alfie expect civilised ones. My sole intention is to love and care for him. Be a woman to him, build a home. Should a mother not want that for a son?" Cora spat out, feeling her anger rise defensively now. 

"And who exactly do you know I am? You've heard I'm the daughter of a business man. The way you're a mother of a business man? ... "

Abigail stayed silent, and Cora couldn't read the expression on her face but she could hardly stop her verbal diarrhoea from continuing. She thought it was a look of surprised admiration which encouraged her further. Perhaps she needed to prove her umph in this test of wills. 

"And yes I'm a Christian woman and yes I follow my faith, but it's not all that technically different from your own! ... If Alfie wished for me to convert for him I would because I want to please him, I want to love him ... I DO LOVE HIM" she said her voice raising multiple octaves as she trailed off. 

"Well." Abigail said finally.  
"You've got the fire he needs I see." And she paused for a moment, the two women glaring at each other. "Now that business is on the table I think we shall get along just fine." Said Abigail, taking Cora's arm and linking it with her own.  
As she led her in a walk back to the main room, Cora was dumbfounded. 

"But I warn you if you fleece him for anything or hurt him in any way...i'll kill you myself" she uttered viciously as they reached the door.  
Alfie was stood nearby and Cora quickly noticed him handing rolled up notes of money to one of his brothers. He looked up when they entered, his hands automatically going back into his pockets and his face searched Cora's as she walked arm in arm with his mother.  
Cora smiled at him, his mother displaying the same sickly sweet curve of the lips. Fake smiles that seemed more than genuine to the rabble before them. Alfie included.

"Time to cut cake!!!" His mother shouted.


	20. Chapter 20

Alfie was supposed to take Cora home after the party. He was worse for wear from the birthday alcohol and so he begged her to stay with him for the night despite the risk.

Cora contemplated it, she knew that it wouldn't be worth it if her father thought she had laid with a man before a proposal, and she just wanted a simple life.  
She laughed in her own head at the idea of ever having a simple life on the arm of Alfie Solomons but she declined all the same. 

Alfie was pawing at her in the carriage, his hands wandering to her chest and his head in her neck. How was she supposed to keep her resolve when he was like this. She wanted him as much as he wanted her and it was his birthday after all. 

She was aware that they were well on their way to her house but she let her fingers snake up his thigh all the same. She cupped at his pants, stroking his hardness and feeling it stiffen further under her touch.  
He started groaning, and she glanced at the driver to make sure he wasn't looking as she contemplated her next move.  
When she was satisfied that he had to keep his eyes on the road and was distracted by the sound of horse hoofs on cobbles, she knelt down in one silent movement like a cat, onto the carriage floor, her skirts surrounding her.

Alfie's eyes were glazed over with lust... As he watched her remove her gloves one by one seductively and place them on the seat beside him.  
The way he looked at her gave her butterflies every time, like he was about to either kill or ravish her right at that moment, and her head often spun so violently in his presence that she didn't care which one it was, as long as he would lay his hands on her to give her respite from her longing.

She looked up into his eyes, intense below his furrowed brow, his hat still on and his lips parted. She could make out his crooked teeth and just a trace of wet tongue trapped between them.  
She tugged at his trousers, pulling on material and he helped her with the task, raising his behind from the seat of the carriage as she jostled them to his ankles. He glanced then himself at the driver, oblivious to the act about to take place in his vehicle. 

Alfie also knew that they were being followed, as it was 10:30pm, on a race against Cora's curfew time and Limbert's heavies were relentless in their pursuits. 

The whole thing made him as hard as stone, his pretty little rich girl being a kitten for his family and a tigress on the prowl for him and him alone. The naughtiness she exuded was perfectly placed. A lady in the streets and a freak in the sheets he smiled to himself, just what he always wanted without ever knowing it. Thoughts about how much he loved her surfaced but were jolted from his mind as she took him in hand. 

Her warm nimble fingers closed around his shaft that had been taken out and laid flat against his stomach. 

The dryness made him wince and knowing she had never stroked a man to orgasm this way, he offered her some hurried advice to move things along.

"Spit on it" he whispered, careful to keep his voice low.

She looked up at him innocently, her hand starting to move on him, her grip tightening.  
"Make it wet baby"... He told her.  
"Put that sweet little mouth on it" 

She did as he asked, licking the underside and putting the tip into her mouth to suck. 

Alfie held out his palm in front of her.  
"Spit on it" he said.  
"Trust me"  
She felt silly, and rude but she spat on him all the same. He was a man she would do anything for no matter how inappropriate it seemed. She had just had a death threat from his mother for Christ's sake, a little spit was neither here nor there. 

"Again. More" he instructed and she did as she was told. 

Alfie seemed pleased, but his eyes were wild, she wasn't sure if he had drunk more than he was used to or was just incredibly turned on.  
She reckoned it was both as she watched him take his own palm and start to fist his cock, spreading her saliva down the length of his shaft. He got faster and he kept his eyes on her as he pumped himself, desperately seeking a release before they arrived at their destination. 

She watched how his eyes rolled back, his head lolling and the muscles in his slim thighs contracting as he worked himself up into a frenzy.

She stopped him by touching his fist softly, removing his hand and lowering herself down. She proceeded to spit directly onto his cock, letting the saliva dribble in a river and pool at the base. His head was tilted to one side, his hat still in place, watching her and waiting, his breathing heavy. 

She took him in both hands and twisted. Having watched how he pleased himself she wanted to try make him cum by her own hands.  
She moved them in unison, picking up pace, the squelching sound becoming louder the faster she wanked him.  
He was grunting and sighing, his body unable to keep to position but still she kept beating at him, watching his face, his mouth open, his chest heaving.  
They turned a corner and he shifted slightly in his seat, falling. His hands were pressed into the leather and he moved one up to hold onto the ceiling of the carriage to steady himself.  
He was struggling to take any more. 

"Darling.... Stop. Stop now, I don't want to spill on you" He muttered, her hands keeping up their pace. She didn't stop.

"I'm gonna make a mess on you" he said, his expression pained, other noises escaping him. Still the driver drove on. 

"Cora" he groaned "fuck"  
He started to spill and she latched onto the round end of him, catching the spurt on her tongue, swallowing it down and accepting the flow as it continued. She drank every last drop of him and he held tight onto her shoulders, his fingers digging in as his spasms rolled through him. He held onto the base of himself as he jerked violently into her mouth, his orgasm strong and intense.

When he finally stopped she helped him pull up his briefs, closing his buttons on his lap and straightening his shirt where he had been bunching it in his tightened fists.  
He let her take care of him. And he thought his heart might burst from his chest if he watched her any longer. She was turning his world upside down and it suddenly seemed like his life had so much promise. He hadn't even dreamt of the trenches for days, and all thoughts of his troubles with Rosa and John and the blinders.. Had faded into insignificance. He could deal with them tomorrow.

"What a woman you are" Alfie said to her, not sure how to express how he felt about her in this moment.  
"I do love you dearly" he said. Thinking that the simple truth would do.  
The carriage halted outside the house of her aunt and uncle. 

Cora smiled at his words, as he got out of the carriage, and tipped his hat to the Limbert men on his tail. They replied silently with icy stares, aware of the mocking nature of his acknowledgement and Alfie could have laughed out loud.  
If only they could've seen inside the carriage compartment a moment earlier. Now that would be something to report to that old bastard that might soon be his father by marriage. That thought was sobering. He frowned as he walked Cora to the gates. 

"G'night miss" he said politely, kissing the hand that had contained his cock a few minutes before. 

"Happy birthday Mr Solomons" Cora laughed as she left him to go inside. When the door closed, Alfie turned and tapped his new favourite pocket watch at the men watching from their vehicle. 11.00pm on the chime.


	21. Semen&Shillings

Alfie woke up with a fresh new perspective. He could and he would handle anything life threw at him, the way he always had.  
He was wondering why he was waking up alone, at 40 years old with a grand old empty house and a lonely bed.  
He had achieved better business success than half of London and he was proud of himself for getting out of the gutter he was born in. But on a more personal level he knew he was ready for more, ready for Cora. He wanted her here now, it made no sense to him that she should be alone as well, in a house that wasn't her own. She should be here in this house, making it their home, filling it with all things her, and all things them. Like children. Yeaaaah children, Alfie thought.  
As he got dressed he imagined a little boy, dressed in a fancy waistcoat and running around the back yard after a boisterous puppy. He pictured Cora fussing after him and wiping away the mud from his posh little shoes. No son of his would want for anything. And Alfie shuddered at a memory of winter mornings and little bleeding feet on icy cobbles. 

On his way across town he ignored the lump in his throat. Taking the long route he stopped outside a jewellery shop, getting out to browse the window display behind it's iron bars. His eyesight wasn't all it used to be and the glass was dusty, so he thought he might go inside for a better look. 

"How can I help you sir?" Said a man with red hair. Auburn like Rosa's. He swallowed down the lump again. 

"Rings!" Alfie barked. 

In his tailored suit and dress coat the man knew Alfie had to have a decent amount of brass and so he pulled out the highest grade gold sovereigns he possessed from a locked safe. He could see that Alfie had fine taste from the rings already adorning his knuckles and the chain around his neck that held the gold pocket watch. 

Alfie looked the tray over and sniggered.  
"Not those kind. The women kind" he said waving away the tray of gents finger wear. 

"Ahh I see... A lucky lady" the man uttered, reaching under the counter for silver and diamonds. 

"I'm the lucky one mate" Alfie frowned as he looked over the rings in front of him, feminine and sparkly. He had no clue what she might like, the only jewellery he ever saw her wear were pearl earrings. 

Half an hour later Alfie left the store with a green velvet box in his pocket and a much lighter wallet. He drove all the way to the neighbourhood he hoped never to visit again after today and parked up at the side of the house with overflowing rubbish. 

He knocked the required amount of times. Nobody answered. It was morning but he knew better than to know they were shut. Plague or death would be about the only thing that closed shop. Or cholera, and Eugh yeah that actually did close them down once, remembered Alfie with a wince. Maybe all the girls were used up, men needing relief on their way to work or something of the sort. His brain was working overtime. He knocked seven times again, stepping back off the doorstep and seeing a net curtain moving in an upstairs window. He'd take the door off if he had to. 

Upon seeing his silhouette arrive from her window at reception, Rosa had left her post and stood at the far side of the wall. Her back was to it so that he couldn't see her through the sheer curtain if he decided to come take a look. Just a minute longer she thought... Make it believable. 

She opened the door, her hair ruffled and her hand over her mouth. A cough escaping her and a weak expression neatly in place. 

"Jesus woman, you look like shit" said Alfie bustling past her. So she was just ill... suddenly he felt wonderful.

"Not the old clap is it?" He asked with a raised brow and a flick of his cane in the lobby, as she joined him there. 

"No" she replied meekly looking down at the floor. 

"What then? Cos if it's not you really ought to put some paint on that face. You'll scare away the punters!" 

Rosa's nostrils flared at his insult. 

"Cmon then out with it!" Alfie said impatiently  
"I told you never to bother me at the bakery lass, so I was more than a little surprised to receive your telegram there last week." He looked angry and she almost wavered again.

"Well you took your time getting here didn't you Alfie..I said I needed you." She said, her hackles raised now.

"Yeah? Well I didn't need you love. Let me remind you how that worked, cos that's the only arrangement we ever had weren't it? I come here when Im the one needing a fuck and you give your body over. I pay you more than I should do and when I leave you pretend i don't exist." 

Her tears were pooling but she did a fine job of holding them back. 

"Like a silent contract.. Sealed with semen and shillings" Alfie chuckled. He was amused now he knew she was just ill. He sat down with a loud animated sound into the lobby armchair and glanced at the rude magazines and tissues set out on the glass coffee table. 

"You better get fucking talkative I don't have the time for this" Alfie said his tone dark and dangerous. He took out his shiny new pocket watch and ran his finger over the face of it, imagining Cora in his office waiting for the cake lady. 

Rosaleigh sat down in the dusty armchair opposite him. She was scared half to death but it was now or never.  
She finally took a deep breath and cleared her throat, sweeping damp hair from her freckled forehead.

"I needed you because you should know that you're going to be a father Alfie Solomons. The Doctor says I'm with child."  
As soon as the words finished their escape from her mouth ...

Alfie went wild.


	22. Chapter 22

Rosaleigh was barricaded in a room with two other girls. They had moved the bed against the door and put the cabinet on the front side of that too. 

Alfie was attempting to smash the door down. He had already annihilated two windows in the lobby and floored two punters who had attempted to stop his tirade, knocking them out cold. 

Her revelation had been like a red flag to a bull. The confirmation stung like acid being poured in his eyes and the bile in his throat threatened to burn a hole down his windpipe. 

He kicked the wooden door like a horse acting out, harder, harder, and even harder still. He wasn't sure what he would do when he got to her, He hadn't lifted a finger to a woman his entire life and he wasn't about to start now but he felt as though he wanted to rip apart her womb and claw the little bastard out himself. 

It took Harold returning from his errands to make Alfie see any kind of sense. The girls had stopped screaming, and he sat in a heap in the corridor with a stiff brandy that the old man had brought to him in a tall tumbler. He leant against the wall and put his head between his knees. 

"She needs to come out here Harold.  
I need her to come out." Alfie said, his voice barely a whisper, his eyes dark. 

"Begging your pardon Alfie but she ain't gonna is she? when you're threatening to snap her neck in two"

Alfie laughed at such a remark repeated to him by an old fellow. Though he was hardly an innocent man, one third owner of an illegal brothel, he still had an air of high-end class about him and Alfie had always liked him because of this. It's how he wanted to come across if he was honest. 

"It ain't mine" Alfie said. "I only nutted in her from time to time mate, when I lost control of myself or after one too many a brandy!" And not for ages either, mind!" The old man looked flustered. 

"It ain't my business Mr Solomons" he said in a panic, obviously wishing not to say the wrong thing.

Alfie tried to rack his brains remembering the last time he did but his mind was foggy as fuck and his temples ached.  
He stood up abruptly and Harold edged backwards nervously. He reckoned he might have to ring the big boss if Alfie didn't calm down. The windows were already smashed to smithereens. 

"Rosa?" Alfie said, his head pressed against the dented door. His voice soft now. 

"Rosie" he tried again. "Come out love, I'm sorry, .....I ain't gonna hurt you. Come out." 

It took a few moments but the men heard the sound of furniture scraping against the stone floor. Eventually the door inched open and one of the other whores he recognised from a wild night last year, stuck half her face through the gap. 

"Alfie she's very delicate, please don't hurt her Alfie, she's not well." 

No she wasn't well. And neither was he. He was sick to his stomach but this was his doing, not hers and he had realised that now once the anger had subsided. It wasn't remotely her fault. She had never burdened him the whole time he had known her. Sure he got sick of helping her with the business of rubbish and violent punters but she ain't ever caused him undue hassle and she had given him relief he hadn't been able to find since before the war. She'd helped him more than he had realised and now it was his turn to help her. 

He wasn't about to marry her. He had no interest in it, and he wasn't about to watch her ruin her life and business bringing up a bairn that weren't wanted. He would help her sort out his little "problem" and all would be right with the world again. He would find a special doctor, one with good recommendations and success rates, and he would find one today. 

"I ain't got it in me to hurt her love, she knows that, let me in now there's a good lass"

Rosa could hear every word and she knew that was a load of old tosh and bollocks. Alfie had hurt her in every way possible from scarring her anus with his rough and ready fucking to refusing to kiss her even once no matter how hard she had tried.  
Except the last time. The time when he had looked in her eyes, awash with emotion and made love to her. The time he gave her his seed to make a baby. 

When the girls had left Alfie shut the door behind him and sat down with a cowering Rosa on the little bed. She winced when he lifted a finger to her chin, to make her look at him. 

"Please tell me it ain't mine." He said quietly. And he waited for her reply but it never came. 

"All those men you sleep with, it's your livelihood, are you telling me you don't make any other one of them ejaculate too early? Because i don't believe that Rosa love for a second. It could be anyone's." 

He just kept stabbing her heart over and over. 

"Alfie I haven't worked the rooms in the past year." 

He looked at her, a look of confusion covering his face, his brow furrowed with the little lines she loved. 

"Since around the time I fell in love with you." She said. She was looking down at her freckled hands. Her face mottled and pink from crying. 

"What do you mean love, love me? You? Get away" he said in disbelief. "And whaddaya mean no working. I've taken you from rooms with other men in this last year Rosa darling, ask Harold." 

"No you haven't Alfie. Not in the last year. I make myself available at all hours for when you come a calling and I have not had another man inside me since that Passover when you came to me in good spirits, full of rum and told me you wouldn't see any more working girls because you only wanted me. That's when I decided I didn't want nobody touching my body except you" 

Alfie was dumbfounded. He had no idea that she had felt this way, and he thanked God that he hadn't or he might have taken her as a wife and never met his Cora.  
He felt sick. Rosa was the perfect wife for lower class Alfie, Alfie from the slums. The old Alfie. But with his fortune and his social class and newfound importance, Cora was the best fit for new Alfie. And she was the only one who set his heart alight. The love he felt for Rosa was different. Like one might love a cousin, but of course cousins didn't screw the way they had. 

"Yeah? Well when did I last offload? ... I haven't had a spill in months, I try my best not to every single time." 

"Well it's not immaculate conception" she said, annoyed that he couldn't remember the recent night in question when she thought he had finally fallen for her too. "The very last time". She answered. 

Alfie remembered the first night at the barrel when Cora had kissed him and he had panicked. He had been feeling so much frustrated lust for Cora that he had made love to Rosaleigh with a picture of her in his mind. He remembered the extra ten Bob he left on her dresser afterwards and his heart sunk. The bastard was his. 

"Well it's ok. Rosa love I have a lot of money, I'm a very rich and I'm a very powerful man. I can get you the safest treatment out there! The best doctor is the business to undo it" he said patting her knee in an attempt to reassure her. 

Rosa was horrified, the look on her face said it all. 

"Oh no Alfie. There won't be any need. I'm keeping it" she said, her arms folded in defiance.


	23. Chapter 23

Alfie wasn't sure what to do for the best. After calling someone to come and board up the windows, and another someone to come and replace them tomorrow, he was making the short journey back into central London.  
He was meant to be going into the Bakery, he had shipments to sign off, appraisals to work through and a plan for trade deals with the Irish. He had also told Cora he would be with her by lunchtime. She said she would bring lemonade, and those little tuna and cucumber sandwiches she made that he loved.  
But how was he supposed to face her today, and act normal. Look her in the eyes, kiss her and eat lunch like a normal couple when he had an enormous secret eating it's way out of him. He had to avoid her until he could at least think straight. He felt for the velvet box of promises in his pocket.

He had left Rosa in floods of tears. She had gone on and on about how she was too old for decent marriage prospects and the baby was her last chance of happiness. The only thing he could think of was how she was about to ruin his. She was a whore. A filthy prostitute out for his cash and that's all it was and he had told her so too.  
By the time he got to the barrel he had already made up his mind about what his options were. There were only two and he pondered over them whilst ordering his first glass of brown rum, specially brewed. 

By his fourth one he was more certain about them than ever, and he knew he had to decide on one today.  
The first option was to pay her off. That was nice and easy since he had existing fortune and ever-flowing income. He owned several properties and lent his name to several more businesses as a silent partner, as well as the race fixing, the illegal extortion firm and his goldmine- the bakery. Soon he hoped he would have the docks under his belt too and that salvini would go down alongside Limbert, leaving him free to play both sides of the chess game with every man and his dog in London.

He could afford to pay her a hefty sum to see her away, perhaps even shipping her abroad, America or Canada, or somewhere even further.  
He knew though, that this option left cracks. And that she could reappear like a mouse working its way into your home through a nook and a cranny that nobody expects.  
That plan wasn't fool-proof and when it came to Alfie Solomons, he wasn't anybody's fool. 

By his sixth glass of rum, Alfie was completely legless and time had passed him by. He had fallen off of his barstool twice and had taken to sitting in a corner as the place filled up after the working day.  
His second option was more appealing with every sip of golden goodness he continued to swallow down with a grimace. 

Well he could bump her off. 

Kill her, wipe her out- dead. Gone. Buried. It could be that simple.

If she disappeared not many would be any the wiser, especially if he exposed her choice of career to the old filth that came questioning, they would write off any enquiries as a misfortune of profession and sweep it under the carpet. He could set the whole thing up, get himself an alibi, play happy families up until the point of the deed so that he didn't alert old Harold or the other girls, it was a plan that would put an end to his mistake forever, it wouldn't leave a trace. And he could be happy with his Cora and have his babies with her.  
A pang of depraved guilt gnawed at him behind the ear. Kill a baby? His baby? Kill an innocent woman. Just so she doesn't cock block the morally deranged Alfie Solomons. The fucking hairy Jew that should've deposited into that tin bucket like a real man would've with a whore. He felt sick at the thought of all this. This was God taunting him this was, this was Gods slap in the face for his crimes against humanity and not paying his taxes! 

Well Alfie was the God of his own fate. He had never conformed to any rule ever put to him, not in the home, not in the workhouse, not in the war, and certainly not in love. Love was a war itself, and it was one he needed more than the guilt of committing another sin. 

"Yeahhhh". He thought out loud. His eyes widened and wild, looking into the depths of his shallow-filled glass.  
Anyone looking would've thought him a mad man, he was talking to himself now.  
Yeaaah that's what was happening. Rosaleigh Pilkington and his little bastard had to go. 

********************************  
By the time Cora got home she was really worried. Was this what being a gangster's moll involved? Worrying endlessly out of your mind about wether your man was laying in a ditch somewhere with a bullet wound bleeding out. And she answered her own question, for yes it was. She had watched her own mother worry senseless, time after time, waiting and pacing, crying and snapping at the children when her father was away on his business. When he was back she could relax, for she knew exactly where he was, and she could enjoy the children. But then he was gone again and back was her torment.  
She wondered if she could live her life in a constant state of worry over Alfie Solomons but then again she knew her options were minimal because she couldn't live without him now either. She was tied by more than her common sense, for that had been interrupted by her heart. Oh Be still her beating heart, but she doubted it would ever be still again now. 

She called his home phone again, and still no answer, she couldn't believe he could be so selfish as to have her worry, so she rang Bennet's home number instead. 

Helena answered, and 2 hours and half a chewed off ear later, Cora finally fell into a restless slumber with the receiver still stuck to her ear, not having heard a whisper from Alfie.

********************************

Rosaleigh cried. She heaved and she shook and she fretted. Her hands were numb from the cold and sore with the rain but she sat on the stoop oblivious to it all. She only felt pain. 

Harold had tried to get her inside more than once, for she had been sat there for over an hour. The window boarders had completed the job, been paid with Alfie's cash and left once more and still she sat there. 

She couldn't comprehend how the man she had ached for, for so long, for the last two years, could be so heartless. He was cold and not at all remorseful in his delivery of the truth. 

Nothing to me, he had said. Scruffy, dirty, boring, he had said. Ugly, old, and saggy, he had said. Worthless, unwanted and cheap. The last part she added herself.  
He said he didn't want her, he never had and he didn't want the bastard child she bore either. He had said she was poison trying to suck the very life from him and she wondered to the heavens where all this malice was coming from. She had of course, taken it all. Like she always had taken whatever he had given her, but this time she was at her wits end. He had mentioned someone. Only once but that had been enough. Cora he had said, Cora. And she had heard the name before but not from Alfie's lips. Things had made sense to her in that moment. 

This Cora was why he was being this way, so savage in nature and relentlessly nasty. Her Alfie couldn't have faked the last two years of desire where he had kept coming back to her, despite all the women, despite all the alternative options. He had come back to her. And that meant something wether he knew it yet or not. If she got this Cora witch he had been blindsided by, got her out of the picture by revealing her predicament, then maybe Alfie's vision would no longer be clouded and he would see what he had in front of him. A woman who would love and fight for him until the end. 

She was snapped out of her thoughts by the arrival of a vehicle.  
She stood up abruptly, wiping her eyes once she saw him arrive. It was the man with majority share of the business. He owned all the brothels in London but he was a silent assassin and nobody knew about his dealings with the whorehouses. 

He took a look at the boarded up lobby windows as he left his motor, smirking slightly and turning his gaze to Rosaleigh who sat smashed into pieces like the glass in front of him.  
"Hurry inside." He said with a dark tone. He didn't ask if she was ok, despite the fact she obviously wasn't. 

When they entered, Harold stuttered a greeting to the man who had taken over their business without permissions. They had been the victims of Extortion all those years ago and kept their small share by the skin of their teeth. If it hadn't been for Alfie's high income and the new girls that Rosa seemed to find so easily, they would've been done for the very next week.  
The man let them run shop and paid them pitifully. But they were still legal part owners. Harold had hoped for too long now, that the man in question would die a painful death so they could finally regain what was theirs. 

As Rosa led the man to her quarters, he breathed heavily behind her. She felt sick from what had already happened that night and what she knew was still to come, but she led him on regardless. 

On reaching her room the man pushed past her and she closed the door gently behind him, taking a deep breath. 

"Is it done?" He asked as he sat his fat behind on the edge of her bed. 

She was silent for a moment, before nodding her head, lowering it in shame. 

"And his reaction was the windows I see, not your face?" 

Rosa nodded again. Alfie hadn't so much as laid a fingernail on her. But he had hurt her more than any physically inflicted pain ever could. 

"That's a lucky escape for you then." The man said. But Rosa didn't feel lucky, she hated this situation and her conscience was already eating at her.

"Did he believe you? Ask questions about it being his? Ask how far along, or to speak to the doctor? The man continued, his grey moustache twitching as he removed his jacket and hat. 

"No. Nothing. He believed what I told him. He reacted, he apologised for said reaction and then he offered a solution." 

"What a gentleman" the man said sarcastically. It was obvious that he despised the man they spoke about. 

"When I refused the solution he called me some names, and he told me he wouldn't pay me a penny, and then he left." Said Rosa. "He mentioned the girl."

"Good.. Good. Then He has a predicament now, a secret blackmail tactic, precisely what I needed." The man chuckled. "Oh he's finished he is......Come sit here." The man said, patting the bed at the side of him. 

"Let me make this up to you. You poor thing, having to deal with the wrath of that dirty Jew. Why don't you come and sit on my lap little lady, let me lighten the load?" He smelt of body odour and cigars but she sat by him all the same. It had been this way for years. She was too scared to ever refuse his advances. He put his stubby hands in her knickers and fumbled around with rough force, his tongue lolling out. She swallowed down her pain and put Alfie in her mind. The Alfie that had kissed her collar bone and stroked her hair from her face just a few short weeks ago. The Alfie she loved. 

She let the man take her after that, for she was too scared to say no. 

Like she had been too scared to refuse his plan to take down Alfie Solomons with a fake pregnancy. To finish his new relationship and take down all his businesses.

For he was John Limbert after all. Deadly London Gangster and owner of every whore in Blighty. She was too scared to say no.


	24. Chapter 24

Alfie tossed and turned all night pondering his decision. His brain ached until he sobered and thought his way out of the mess he had created. He was a blood thirsty savage gangster, the war having driven his need to kill, and yet the presence of Cora in his life had softened him. She was good and pure, innocent and worthy and he wanted to inject her spirit like opium into his very veins. He would not kill a baby, for it would go against everything he wanted to be. Everything Cora would want him to be. If he committed a sin so brutal he would never be worthy of her love and he would never be able to look into her eyes and make love, buried in her body and leaking his poison into her depths to create a son. The son of a child killer. No he would not do it, and he would not hurt Rosa any more than he had, for he had also felt things for that woman at a low point in his life. She had fed his physical needs when that was all he had to give and she had never burdened his mind like he expected he had burdened hers just yesterday. Poor rosa, terrified whilst bearing the illegitimate child of a brutish pig reacting with malice. He would make it up to her. During the next week he would set everything right and make way for his new life as a good man and a good prospect for Cora Limbert. The very thought alone at last allowed him to drift off before the church bells came to chase away his dreams.

**************************************

Cora was simmering under the surface. She had met Bennet at the door of the bakery at the start of the working day and he had informed her that Alfie was ok. Alfie was ok. And whilst she instinctively breathed a sigh of relief it was fast followed up with white hot rage at the lack of common decency he had given her feelings. If he thought he would just stroll into work this morning and wrap his arms around her begging forgiveness, like her father always had with her mother. He could think again. She was no pushover. She didn't want him to think it was ok for a husband to act this way towards a wife, and she supposed there was the small matter that she wasn't yet his wife but if he started off their courtship with this level of respect then he could end it here too, because she would'nt have it.

Engrossed in her thoughts she never heard the voices until they were right outside the office door. She could make out Alfie's low grumble, and Bennetts faithful reasoning as he seemed to plead with his boss to change his mind on some matter. She patted down her petticoats, tucking a chocolate curl behind her ear before she engrossed herself falsely in her typing, her eyes cast down as he entered their office space. 

He felt the electricity ignite in him when he spotted her. She was typing efficiently and she did not look up as he wandered in, a sheepish look on his face. 

He grunted a greeting as he went to his coat peg, hanging up his hat and coat and then rolling up the sleeves of his linen shirt. He got no reply.  
"Pleasant morning?" He asked her with a grimace, knowing he would feel her wrath at any moment for his lack of regard. 

"Very pleasant" she answered with a polite nod borne of pretence. She didn't look up and it agitated him. He needed her, her reassurance of their love if he meant to go ahead and be a man for the sake of their future. 

"Hmmm" he grunted, massaging the course hair of his beard as he sat at his desk looking at her engrossed in her work. He thought he would cope better if she just went at him. The silent treatment wasn't a tonic he could stomach right now. 

"I'm sorry I didn't phone you yesterday." He cleared his throat before continuing. He felt nervous and he realised it was because he was terrified of losing her when the time came. "I...... I had some business to attend to that was unexpected and well I..... I was longer than I first thought. And then... well it wor' too late to call wannit?!

She nodded her head once more, her damn fingers still typing. Tap tap tap. Tittle tittle tittle. Alfie's nostrils flared. 

After a tense moment she finally spoke again "Oh its Quite alright Mr Solomons, for I was tied up myself actually. I spent some of the afternoon on the floor whilst a nice young man showed me the distillery processes, since I deal with their maintenance admin. And well, that's why I'm busy catching up now. He kept me profoundly distracted" she licked her lips, pausing her finger work for a split second, to take a sip of her coffee in its China cup. Still she did not look at him. 

Alfie's grey eyes turned a stormy black at her admission. He knew exactly what her game plan was and he was loathed to admit that it was working. He was seething at the thought of any of the eligible bakery Men spending time with her. She was his. She had given herself to him, and that was that. No Jewish woman would act that way with another man and his good eye twitched at the realisation that she wasn't Jewish and that was exactly why he wanted her. And boy was her indifference making him want her right now. His blood was coursing like liquid fire through his veins, straight into his linen briefs. His thick staff straining a tent in his lap. He shifted uncomfortably. 

"I see." He said finally. "And there was I, feeling sorry as fuck that I dint tell ya of my changed plans Miss Limbert... had I ave known you were otherwise engaged I would've never bothered to worry my fucking self." His eyes bore on her face. How dare she be this way with him. He was sorry.

Her breath hitched for a moment at his curse words. He didn't like to swear in her presence, in fact the only times he had were when he barked instructions to his men in the office or during moments of intense passion in the bedroom. She knew he was mad, she did not however, care. 

"I would hate you to worry yourself sir. Please don't do it on my account going forward." 

He ran his hands through his greasy hair, his exasperation slipping to the forefront of his temper. She was stubborn as fuck and whilst it enraged him, he fucking loved it. His dick had never felt so hard. 

Alfie tore out of his seat and stomped over to her smaller desk as best he could with his leg.  
He slammed both palms onto the wood, leaning his weight on them, making the type writer jump and in turn, her hands.  
She focused her gaze on his thick fingers, worn by poverty, war and labour. Her eyes zoned in on the dark ink of the crown tattoo that adorned his palm and she kept it there, biting her lip in anticipation. Would he raise a hand to her? She wasn't altogether sure, but the thought of his rage was sending a leak of moisture and an electric tingle to the apex of her thighs and her pulse quickened. 

"LOOK AT ME!!!!!!" He shouted at her. His patience diminished. 

Her brown doe eyes slowly but surely moved from the tattooed hand, to his strong and exposed forearms, thick with veins and weathered with sun, to his shoulders, broad and hunched, and finally to his hair covered face, to hone in on his glare. Her heart stopped for a beat, but the intense passion in them was enough to shock her back to life. 

Alfie let everything that had been bothering him over the last few weeks come to a head within himself as he darted around the desk and pulled her roughly from her seat, slamming her body hard against the wall behind it. She whimpered at the impact but softened into him as he pinned her there. 

"You're making me so fucking angry I want to take you by force right here against this BASTARD dry wall!!!!" He seethed, again letting his misplaced anger spill out of his mouth and hit her all at once with venom. 

Her stomach flipped, hot blood flooding her body, her senses heightened like never before. She didn't even feel scared. She wanted him. And she wanted him now. 

"So do it." She panted breathlessly.


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [](https://postimg.org/image/ofvp5bw3p/)   
> 

Alfie's eyes twinkled in the dim light of his office. Their office. The private space that had given him a backdrop to fall desperately in love with her so quickly.

The daddy's little rich girl pinned beneath him against the wall was mocking him. Go on and fuck her against the dry wall she had said. And he fucking felt like it too. But that was degrading to her and what she was to him. She should be tended to gently in a marriage bed, for she weren't just some whore he could ravish for filthy satisfaction, she was a lady and a prospective wife he wanted to cherish, devour and savour. And that wasn't like him at all. She was changing him. Making him want to be a better man. A better man for her. But she also gave him such a damn hard on that old Mr Alfie Solomons was still overpowering the new Mr Morally Upstanding. 

As his chest heaved and his pulse continued to race, she kept her eyes on him. Willing Him. As desperate for it as he was. He knew more than ever that this was the woman he wanted to marry. He wanted her because she kept him centred against the threat and madness of the dark London that had been his meagre existence for far too long. When he was with her it just melted away to insignificance. It felt nice not to be living on his nerves, to be feeling something else. She still excited him whilst lacing it with a calmness that he had never known. She was his lighthouse in a stormy sea.

Cora kept her eyes on his steely glare, wondering what it was he was thinking. He looked potent, ready to blow at any moment, but his eyes glistened, the pupils wide, the desire obvious. She reached with her nimble fingers down to grip the protruding arousal in his trousers, giving him a firm and encouraging squeeze. 

Alfie's Breath caught in his throat as he hardened further under her grip. Oh to hell with nice. She wasn't asking for it.

He pushed his body weight into hers against the wall, the force knocking her hand from his pants as he lifted her arms and slammed them up above her head. She gasped as he did it, their eyes never leaving one another until Alfie dipped his head into the crook of her neck, running his wiry beard along her jaw and around to her ear.

"I'm gonna fuck you now sweetie, Because you're mine." He whispered.  
She whimpered at his words, her eyes closing in pleasure.  
She flung them open at the feel of her arms snapping back once more against the wall, pinned together by Alfie's strong palm.  
"Say it. Tell me ya mine. Tell me no one else makes you feel the way I do." 

He continued his trail of rough longing down her neck, his free hand running a thick finger over the hem of the dress at her chest, pulling at it to expose her plump cleavage, the pale skin erupting in gooseflesh at his suddenly tender touch.  
He drunk her in, running a tongue over his lips to wet them as he lowered them to the pale mounds beneath him. As he kissed her breasts he heard her mewling, her body sagging down the wall ever so slightly and he looked up at her face from his position, she hadn't said it yet. This damn woman. She was Driving him fucking crazy.

He released her from the wall and she stumbled on her feet as she was freed from him. She gave him a puzzled look, wondering why he had stopped the onslaught, her skin flush and her lips bitten. 

"Bend over the desk" he said in a growl. 

He started to unbutton his linen shirt from the top, his eyes were dark, expectant and full of desire as he watched her, She felt her belly flip as she walked on liquid legs around him to do as he said like the good girl she knew he desired. 

She moved her typewriter to one side, the papers following, before bending her entire torso over the width of her desk, gripping with her fingers at the opposite edge, her stomach flat to the wood, her head laying gently to the side to wait for him.  
She heard the clacking of Alfie's belt as he freed himself, and the sound of his heavy breath as she felt him reaching for her underskirts and lifting them up in a swift movement, bunching them over her hips. 

Without sight, her hearing was heightened, and she felt so exposed but it was thrilling. The sound of his breath was catching in his throat at her exposed legs, the pale pink garters holding her stockings in place and topped with her silk panties that were already revealing her dampness to him.  
Behind her, a doubt Crept into his mind for a fleeting second about being so selfish in wanting this with her. He loved her but the stress of the last few weeks since she walked into his bakery and distracted his damn mind, was built up making him want to fuck her like he hated her.  
He rubbed his fingers down her panties, feeling the hot wetness of the material, and let it trail down the creamy pale skin of her thigh. He bit his lip as he watched her push back her behind in search of the touch they both desired. 

She needed skin on skin as much as he did, and maybe the passion had become too much for them both to hold back. How could it be wrong when it felt so fucking right. 

She felt his finger tips run up the material that covered her spine and she raised herself up on her tiptoes, her behind arching itself off the hard desk. Asking for it. 

"Alfie.... please" she said breathless. She needed him to take her now or she felt as though she might die. Never before had she experienced this white hot prickle of anticipation, pooling with heavy heat at the apex of her thighs, giving her a throbbing ache and a need for friction.

Behind her Alfie's eyes were maddening, watching her writhe beneath him, he took his penis in hand and felt the bead of pre-cum at the end of it. He slicked it down himself, using the other hand to delve into Coras knickers, coating his fingers in her arousal, which he promptly covered his length with. It was so erotic he felt ready to blow, but she was bent over offering her cunny to him, begging for his cock and he was a gentleman more than willing to give her what she wanted. Hard. They both needed this. 

"You're mine Cora. Ain't no other bastard gonna touch ya like this...only me" he said with quiet intensity. 

The next thing Cora felt was her underwear being pulled to the side, and the blunt tip of Alfie's member as it rubbed up and down the length of her entrance. She braced herself for the intrusion, she was still a relative virgin and Alfie had not yet been rough with her but she knew it was coming.  
She wasn't however prepared for the violation when he slammed into her. Her hips were pressed against the edge of the desk as he thrust his whole length inside her tight space, a groan likened to a pained animal caught in a trap, escaping from his lips, tangled with her own audible gasp.

"Fuckkk... so tight ..." she heard him mumble... but her head was in a spin. He had begun to move inside her and she could hear the slap of skin on skin as he pinned her to the desk with his ministrations. It was uncomfortable, the position on the wood cut into her hip bones, her breasts squashed, her neck bent. But the feeling inside her was like exquisite torture, the dull ache she had felt before he had her, taken over by a crawling, tingling, sensation threatening to rip her at the seams. She could feel the tickling bristle of his pubic hair on her behind with each thrust, and she let the sensations overtake her sense as she moaned loudly in the quiet office as he banged her like he would a whore. But She never felt like one for a second. 

Alfie mumbled and grumbled out incoherrant words as he fucked her. He was amazed his body was resilient enough to give her a good seeing to because his mind had already climaxed with the feeling of being inside her. He tried to keep going, his raised temperature overwhelming him, the sounds of her little gasps and drawn out moans letting him know she was enjoying it too. It was embarrassing how aroused she made him, he was transported back to being a horny teenager blowing after a couple of thrusts and that in turn reminded him he hadn't cum like that since then. Oh this sweetheart was special alright .. he was going to make such an honest women of her. He was going to watch her walk down an aisle to him in a white veil, putting her life in his hands, submitting to his duty, this ensuring no little bakery worker cunt could give her the time of day. The thought of her being only his made him harder still inside her as he continued to thrust.

"Cum for me Cora... sweetie I'm so close" he gasped, his voice sated, devoid of the aggression he started with, his movements speeding up, the slapping noise impossibly louder than before. This was going to be quick. 

"I'm close Alfie..." she managed, as she felt the coiling closeness of her pleasure building. She raised herself on her arms, the new position taking him deeper still and she felt his arms moving round her body, his rough hand at her throat, carefully encasing it, the other rubbing at her breast, taking one out to cup in his other hand.  
She was going to cum. 

"Alfie!" She gasped... 

He grunted behind her, his movements becoming circular gyrations, the penetration making her feel a delicious soreness that was worth every wince. 

She started to tighten, it ached and it squeezed on him hard, sending prickles to every nerve ending of her body. She had no idea sex could feel like this. This good. She knew right then that this man was the only one she would ever know this way. This was it for her. The thought tipped her over.

Alfie felt her spasms and then the white hot heat Dancing up his own spine.   
With his grip on her throat tightening, his fingers tweaking her nipple, he jetted harder than he had ever experienced before, pouring his seed so high he was sure it was being packed tight against her cervix. And his delirious mind, consumed by pleasure had a fleeting wish that it would actually put his bairn in her womb.

They were both breathless, hot and panting. As he removed himself from her body he felt the trickle of semen leave the end of him and coat her thighs. He stumbled back from her, his heavy daze lifted as he watched her lower her skirts, pull up her corset to cover herself and turn to him. He shouldn't have spilled in her. They weren't married yet.  
He wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead with his arm and furrowed his brow in her direction. He was fast becoming consumed by her, his heart was beating wildly at the sight of her dishevelled beauty after just being taken by him.. he didn't deserve her at all.  
He reached for the office chair and sat on it, beckoning her to him, sat pantless upon it she sat across his lap and laughed at the sight of it.  
"What's funny woman?" He said, his breathlessness still apparent.  
"Nothing Alfie ... nothing's funny. Everything's perfect" she said quietly. 

"That's because YOU are perfect." He said encasing her in his strong arms and nuzzling her nose against his own. 

"I think we should fight more often" he said as she slapped his bare chest playfully.


	26. Chapter 26

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [](https://postimg.org/image/53xqvply3/)   
> 

Alfies head bobbed downwards and he promptly lifted it up again along with his drifting eyelids. It was late and he sat at his desk in his drawing room, shrouded in a low light with bunches of screwed up paper balls surrounding him.  
He had to get this letter written up so it could be sent first thing in the morning. The subject matter was making it hard to string a sentence together let alone compose it to paper.  
Alfie was good at writing- normally. If he was honest with himself it was a hobby of is when he wanted to unwind. He had been taken pity on by a friends grandad as a youngster and taught how to read and write, and also speak a bit of French.  
For a lad who never set foot in a school, he was like Einstein. When he had learned enough, he exploited it and charged the local lads 3 shillings to give them a lesson of their own. Always was a fucking boss, he thought.  
Right now however, he felt like a damn dummy, he was struggling to compose anything at all. 

Every few seconds, his mind drifted to his woman. His Cora. His lighthouse.  
He needed her to rescue him from this sea of chaos and she was doing so without even realising it. A once cold and bleak future seemed to have an orange glow, if he could just take care of his past first. 

He eventually had a breakthrough, and once the flow started the current picked up: 

_// Dearest Rosaleigh,_

__

_I write to you today in hope of firstly your forgiveness and secondly your understanding._  
_Of late I have not been somewhat myself and although this holds no excuse, the news you delivered to me, made me react in a way towards you that I am not proud of._  
_I bear you no ill will despite my empty threats or harsh words and I have a proposition for you that will hopefully make a final amends in our association._

_I propose a better life for you and the bairn you insist on rearing. Though I do not welcome the life, it is a life all the same, and in helping to create it I agree I hold full responsibility for nurturing it despite my hesitations._

_I cannot make an honest woman of you as would be the simplest solution. There are many reasons for this but none can change that outcome. None of those reasons are remotely your own doing, it is that my heart belongs to another that I cannot be without._

_Therefore, I put forward to you a plan to move out west, away from this squalid city we are forced to call home, to the Americas. Or to New York, to Philadelphia, to Brooklyn. To wherever takes your fancy._

_The life out there does not provide the dreary backdrop that the streets of Camden swallow us in._  
_There will be no more giving your soul to strangers in the night, no more trying to make ends meat, and no more waiting for someone to love you right._  
_Over there you are shiny and new, and can be free with this child that you most desperately want, and I can make that happen. I want to make that happen for you. And for your child._

_Please mull this entire proposition over for some days, a hurried reaction may lead to the wrong choice and that I could not bear._

_When you know your mind please return me some correspondence to my home address. My bakery is for **BUSINESS** only. _

_I will deposit £300 sterling and tickets, with a promise to send regular income. Just say the word._

_Alfred Solomons. //_

He sighed as he finished and his shoulders slumped. If she wrote a reply to the bakery then Cora would come upon it first as she dealt with all the mail. He went back and made the sentence not to do so, a bolder font.  
He folded the paper neatly and sealed the envelope. Almost at once, his heavy lids overcame him and his head fell onto his chest, before sleep took over. 

**************************************

Alfie had phoned Cora from his entrance hall that morning, fully dressed in his daywear at 6am. He told her that she wasn't needed at the Bakery today and luckily he had organised something for the two of them to spend time together a little out of the city. Lord knows they needed a pick-me-up. He knew a nice place on the outskirts called Richmond that held a fancy traders market for the rich, and had a park that stretched about a mile long, full of long grass, daisies and dog walkers. He knew because he used to wander there as a boy. And although his childhood was strife-some and deprived, the place held nothing but happier memories. It was there that he would sit out on a rock that gave way to a ravine beneath it, the grass covered in a blanket of downy heather of a rich purple colour, and clear his head. 

It was there he could forget if temporarily, about the hunger in his gut and the lashings from his father upon his back. 

He had felt his happiest there, the sunshine reflecting on the rocks and the air of nature around him, the birds a happy soundtrack that had somehow given him hope that one day his life would be better. 

Hell, now he knew that it would only get worse. The war had all but crucified him. Left him with a permanent limp, physical scars and a harrowed anger and sadness that he couldn't detach from. He now sought danger in every nook and cranny of London, feeding off the brutal interactions he dealt with on a daily basis, not fearing death in the slightest, and some days welcoming it. 

That was until Cora sashayed into his office unexpectedly and made him calm. Made the nightmares stop. She filled his head and his heart so entirely that there wasn't room for all the dark shit he had held onto.  
And yeah, now he would make a promise to have her near him forever, the light to his dark, out here on that very rock that meant happiness and hope. He tucked the green velvet box into his dress coat and smiled. 

Today would be a good day. I mean providing she said yes, he thought with a frown as he placed his hat on his head and left the house with the envelope gripped tightly in his hand. First stop was the old post office. 

**************************************

The sun was out but the air was still chilly as Alfie and Cora walked arm in arm past the stalls at the market.  
He had left the picnic basket in the motor when they arrived and it had the drinks in it, but he felt half-parched from thirst because of the heat.

He spotted a stall further down with what looked like bottles of lemonade and jars of jam and honey. 

"You need a drink?" He asked her, pointing at the stall and wincing slightly as his bad leg gave him a twinge of pain. 

"I'm ok". she said "I've spotted a petticoat stand that has my name on it, go ahead and sit down and get your drink Alfie" she suggested.  
He nodded his head in agreement, taking the paper bags they had accumulated with things from the various stalls. She had picked an ornament of a brass horse for fuck knows what reason and the bag was so heavy it made his arm ache but he wasn't about to admit that to her.

As he sat at the stand with his bottle of lemonade, feeling better already, he watched her talking to the lady at a stall, and trying on bonnets. Cora laughed at something the older woman said and he couldn't help but smile himself at the sight of her so natural. She didn't look conservative today. Her hair was loose how he liked it, just the touch of a wave about the chocolate strands, blanketing down her back. She had a fitted cotton dress on that was lilac and rather like the heather on the hill that he planned on taking her to in just a short while. Her cream shawl was wrapped loosely around her shoulders and anyone looking wouldn't know she came from money today. He realised that's what has endeared him to her from the beginning. He remembered the rush of attraction he experienced when she walked into his office that day in her expensive clothes with her down to earth flair. She was the whole package and he suddenly felt a pang of nerves at what he was about to do. If she rejected him he wasn't sure he could maintain the macho-ness that had made her believe the brass fucking horse wasn't heavy. 

"Wake up little boy" she teased him as she approached. He had been staring at her shoes, and was snapped out of his daydream. 

"Ain't nothing little about me love, you should know that" he teased back, wiggling his eyebrows. 

"Alfie!" She said smacking his arm, her cheeks pink and her eyes scanning the rich people around them with a worried glance.  
He rose with a bellowing laugh. 

"Cmon lass, I wanna take you somewhere".


	27. Chapter 27

It was lunch time and Rosaleigh was still in her room. It was room 4, the one where she had so often shared trysts with Alfie, and the one that made her feel calm for that reason.

John would be there any minute, and then the calm would leave her. She wasn't sure what would come of the latest event, she was petrified of Alfie not only been taken down on a business level and losing a woman he obviously adored, but petrified that he would end up dead. 

She had received the letter about an hour previously, and Harold had encouraged her to ring John immediately as it was both their heads on the chopping block should she not. She sat there now on the chair by the dresser, her eyes red from crying and read it over and over again. 

Her heart swelled for Alfie. 

He had done the right thing, he had taken responsibility like that of a good man. Even though it could burden his life and his new blossoming relationship, and for that reason he needed her gone, he still wanted to take care of her.  
She was well aware that a dangerous man like Alfie Solomons could've well taken care of her another way. She had seen that happen often in her line of work, married men of importance or nobility, disposing of a wench who bore their bastard so their reputation and livelihood were not tarnished.  
Instead Alfie had offered her a future, and she wished more than ever she really was bearing his child and had the freedom to take his offer with both hands.  
But then there was John, and there was no way he was going to let that happen. 

There was a sound of muffled voices and she felt his presence in the house before she saw it, her body taking on an involuntary tremble. Time to slip on the mask. She always refused to show him her fear, though it threatened to rise from her like a fog of black smoke.

He barged in with menace, and she could see he was angry, the great bulging vein in his fat neck betraying him, but he spoke quietly. John Limbert had no need to shout. 

"Show me the fucking thing" he said, holding out his hand for the letter she held in her dainty fingers. 

He scanned the words, still stood, the occasional vile snigger escaping his lips and his eyes narrowed as he completed it.

"What a fucking nobleman eh? What a saint." .. he paused, his shoulders hunched.

"Except for the fact that he's disowning you, isn't he? And your fake bastard too... after so many years of putting his nolly in you! 

Cheeky fucking KIKE he is .... JEW PIG!!!!!" He bellowed. His anger was rising and Rosaleigh continued to tremble whilst trying to act nonchalant beneath him. 

"Well how many pounds of sterling do we reckon we could fleece him for if we threaten to tell my little angel? Huh? How much of his fortune and businesses can we feast on if we threaten to reveal all and expose his dirty little secret so that she leaves him? Hmmmm?" he said, sitting on the edge of the bed, the letter still in his hands. He scanned the words on the paper again, shocked that a dirty dunce was able to write the way that he did.

He took off his bowler cap and rubbed at the temples beneath his scrawny grey hair, his complexion still rosy with the heat of his frustration. 

He was quiet for some moments and so was the house around them.  
Rosaleigh dared to turn her head slightly, to stare in the mirror before her - chipped and dirty.  
Alfie hadn't disowned her. She refused to see it that way, for he had promised to look after her and help her, and to carry on that help when she was gone. He wanted to give her a good life, one that didn't involve John Limbert and this dirty fucking knocking shop where she had committed a thousand sins, letting countless vile pigs between her legs. Alfie wasn't one of them.  
She made up her mind through the silence, her heart hammering. Tears pricking her eyes, threatening to spill over.

"You will return a letter." He spoke finally, his voice calmer, his plan materialised. 

"Instruct him here tomorrow at 5 of the evening, you will refuse the offer, threaten to tell My Cora all, and demand more money. A lot more money.... money that will make a dent in his livelihood. If he refuses we tell Cora straight away instead of later. And if he complies then I'm one step closer to ruining the bakery as well as his fling with MY DAUGHTER" he raged again.

John left the room briefly, returning with the ink and paper to compose the letter and stood over Rosa whilst she shook out a response. Every time she smudged the writing, or made a spelling mistake he smacked her upside the head with his fist. 

He was growing more and more impatient because of this illiterate whore.

Rosa was so shattered by the end of the short note, her lip was broken and her spirit was too. When she had finished he snatched it from her, planning on having it delivered directly to the cunts door by his own men.  
He looked at the weak, flame haired whore beneath him. The control he had over her and the uses he had for her making him hard. She was pathetic, and he loved it.  
He grabbed her by the chin, squeezing it and forcing her to look up at him. 

"Now get on the fucking bed" he spat.  
He was about to show her again how a real man fucked a whore.

*********************************** 

That evening, when she was alone, Rosaleigh was numb as she wrote a letter of her own. This time her hands did not shake.


	28. Chapter 28

Alfie carried the basket with ease, but the climb up the hill was harder than he once remembered, his ageing body betraying him, his bad leg threatening to land him arse over elbow with every shaky step. 

Still, even the sprightly cora, with age on her side groaned behind him in complaint.

"How much further Alfie? ... I'm not sure how much more walking I can stand" she panted, tendrils of her locks beginning to stick against the sheen on her forehead.

"Almost there" he grunted, waiting for her to catch up, before taking her small hand in his much bigger one. It spurred her on.

They eventually reached a clearing, the ground evening out and turning a rich purple beneath their tired feet, and Cora noticed the small stream and breathtaking views immediately. 

"Wow..." she said, letting out a breath, as astonished as he hoped she would be. 

"Why, I can see the whole of London from up here... Alfie it's beautiful." She cried out, grabbing him at once around the neck and planting a wet kiss against his lips, burying her face into his beard and inhaling his ever masculine scent.

To say Alfie was so confident and full of suggestive talk both in and out of the bedroom, he was reduced to a puddle when Cora made moves of affection as such. He grumbled and swatted her away, reminded of that first night outside the pub when she shocked him with her advances. He could be bashful at heart. Fucking was his second nature, but affection was foreign to him. 

He realised they had come so far since that night, so much happening between them and around them. It solidified their ownership of their chance at love, despite it all they had found it in each other, A most unlikely coupling, fighting for it against the odds.  
He smirked to himself as he realised he had never had to fight it at all, for he had never stood a chance against it. 

"What's funny Alfie?" She asked, pulling away and taking the basket from him.

"Nothin.... i wa juss thinking of that brass 'orse you made me buy" he replied.

"So what's funny? She asked again playfully, hands on her small hips now, waiting for an answer. 

"It's like you innit? ... a filthy mare" 

He had to duck as she took off her shoe and swung it at him, calling him a brute as he roared with laughter at his own joke and grabbed her to initiate his own passionate embrace.

**************

Ten minutes later they were settled together on a brown blanket that Alfie had brought from home. There was nobody around and he had removed his coat, struggling against the growing heat of the sunshine. It really was a beautiful day. 

Cora had taken out the items he had packed for their late lunch, as well as some items they had picked up at the Market.  
They ate quietly, the odd few words uttered as they enjoyed the crusty loaf, cream cheese and pickle that Alfie had cut into sandwiches. They looked out at London below them, listening to the birds chirping above in hope of wasted crumbs and he watched as Cora sipped on the juice and took out a scone to Layer it with the blackberry jam they had just bought. He watched her lick some from the corner of her mouth and she caught him staring. 

"Nice and sweet" she remarked. 

"How I like my women." He replied before thinking. 

"Oh is that plural, Mr Solomons?" She asked, with a raised eyebrow.

"Not anymore" he said, his gaze turning intense, the flames licking behind his eyes as he watched the revelation put that beautiful smile on her face once again. 

He moved closer to her, shuffling into his new position and took off his hat.  
He swallowed a lump in his throat, his heart ringing beats into his ears.  
With the prettier sound of the calming birds, and the nearby stream flowing, the heather and green grass surrounding them, he knew it was time. It felt right. It was now or never. 

He reached into the pocket of his coat as she watched a sparrow hopping on a rock nearby, chirping its way closer to them, distracting her. 

When she turned back around to him, he held open the box, his eyes narrowed and apprehensive, a delicate pleading look devouring them. A little boy lost.

Her heart flipped, her eyes widening.  
She bit her lip as he started to speak but it was hard to hear him over her own adrenaline thumping in beat with her heart. She wasn't prepared for this. She had hoped he would take her as a wife eventually, but thought she might have to wait patiently for it. 

"I love ya sweetie.... "  
He said, and cleared his throat. She knew he was nervous so coming to her senses she became his anchor once more, and reached out for his free hand, clasping her fingers in his, letting him continue with her encouragement. 

"And I ain't ever allowed myself to love anyone. Without sounding like a damn female.... well I dint ever think that I would find someone... like you...that I wanted to spend forever with." He finished, his eyes glinting with held-back moisture. 

Cora wasn't as strong, and the droplets pooled and fell from her own eyes before she could stop them. The moment, the sentiment, the setting, it was all perfect. 

The silence stretched between them as he removed his hand from hers and wiped away her tears. 

"Are you going to ask the question Alfie?" She asked him finally, when the box he held between them began to shake slightly in his hand, and his breathing became laboured. The ring inside glittered in the sunshine.

He laughed, he had laughed more today than he had in years. 

"Yeah .... "  
he got up swiftly, dragging her with him  
"Stand up lass, get up cmon, lemme do this properly" he said, with a newfound confidence. She didn't look like she was about to say no. 

Cora cupped her mouth with both hands, concealing her Cheshire Cat grin as he got down on one knee, the difficulty with his leg impairment not going unnoticed.

"Cora Mae Limbert.... will you do me the utmost honour of being my wife?"

There was no pause for her reply, and he barely registered the yes she screeched at him as he pushed the dainty crystal ring upon her finger and swiftly lifted her up into his arms, spinning her around before they fell with a thud onto the heather that carpeted the ground beneath them. 

The breeze made Cora's hair whip around her face, and out here with nature and free from social restraint, she reminded him of a young and wild Catherine Earnshaw, but instead of wuthering heights, they were at dizzying heights, enraptured with each other. 

"Alfie I love you .... I love you so much" she uttered between fevered kisses all over his face, her body on top of his own in the long grass. 

"Take me! Take me as your wife, take me home and take my body" she mumbled into his mouth.

Alfie groaned loudly.

It didn't take half as long to get back down the hill as it did on the way up.


	29. Chapter 29

Alfie carried her over the threshold to his home like he had already married her. 

He was so caught up in the giggles she was emitting he half forgot about his bad lower back and the crushing pain in his leg as he kicked the door to his bedroom open. In fact he had been so enamoured with the scent of her, and the fact that she weighed nothing at all, whilst fitting perfectly in his arms, that he hadn't even noticed the letter on his entrance mat as he had kicked it aside in his rush to take her up the stairs. He also didn't notice the motor sat just down the street that contained the two men hired by John Limbert to deliver it. 

As he spun her in the bedroom he couldn't come down from his high at the fact she had said yes.   
"Sweetheart you just might be the best part of me already, you know what I mean?" His voice was breaking slightly with his raw emotion. 

"Alfie, you are drowning me in romance today... who knew?" she laughed girlishly as he placed her down on the edge of the bed. "The bad bad gangster baker of Camden Town is actually a teddy bear.."

"Yeah only for you love believe me.... now take your fuckin knickers off" he grunted.

She had been removing her shoes and snapped her head up to catch his eye, the glassy glare that drunk every bit of her in. He wasn't joking. 

"Oh I don't know" she said, feigning innocence, toying with him like she knew she could do so well. 

"Maybe I should leave them on.. you know, maintain my modesty until I sleep in a marriage bed.. preserve that special privilege for my husband?" 

His nostrils flared as he removed his coat and flung it on the rocking chair in the corner. Her talking like that may or may not be him, made him want to mark his territory. 

"Do you think some flimsy bit of material Is gunna stop me from putting you on your back?"

She shivered, astonished that his crudeness made her hot despite herself. 

"Or Do you think I ain't one to march down to that town hall right now, dragging you kicking and screaming to sign the fucking papers?" he quizzed, unbuttoning his shirt as he went to draw the curtains. If he cared to notice beyond his distraction, he would have locked eyes with the men below sat waiting.   
"Before you change that witty mind of yours"...

"Well I wouldn't kick and scream Alfie. I'd be right behind you willing. Like I always will be". She said, half-drunk with lust as he dragged his shirt over his head to reveal his broad yet scarred shoulders to her roving eyes. 

"Yeah? ..Well I ain't gonna be sated until you're mine by law and I can rightfully do what I wish with ya, whenever I wish for it... ya know?" He came back over to her. 

She was getting hotter by the minute, wanting him so much that she was aching in places that she didn't know were lonely before him, and she needed the restraints of her dress removed from her body so he could get at every part of her. 

"Take that dress off" he said as if reading her mind. He undid his trousers whilst kicking off his own shoes in swift movements, keeping his hooded gaze on her feminine features. His voice when he said it was laced with desire, but the kind that wanted to claim. The kind that wanted to primally mate and to own a woman so completely that she was left with no doubt about the kind of man she had just laid with. 

She undid her buttons, reaching down to lift the skirts of her dress and raise them up over her head. Her hair was messy from the day outside and it's breeze, her cheeks already pink with the sun she had caught on the hill. To him she looked like heaven.

He motioned to her undergarments.

"And the bra baby" his breath was heavy and she could see the rise and fall of his chest. Lately she had lost all shyness, especially after the desk tryst, where she had been more vulnerable than ever yet it had thrilled and fulfilled every sense she possessed, because it was Alfie. And in Alfie she had trust. She knew he would care for her in every sense of the word. 

She slipped the lacy straps down her arms, as he dragged his gaze away to light the fire in the hearth and when he returned it, her rosy nipples centred on plump mounds made his underwear tent with his straining need. 

With the fire lit, and them both almost naked, he approached the bed and gently pushed her backwards, he met no resistance and she closed her eyes as her head hit the softness of his bed.   
She waited for the feel of his warm skin on top of her but the next feeling that came was his strong hands parting her legs and skimming their palms up the length of her porcelain coloured thighs. 

She licked her lips and let out a soft moan, he hadn't even touched her yet but the feel of his beard scratching and tickling against her sensitive skin, whilst moving ever closer to her centre, was mindblowing. 

Alfie got onto his knees before her, smirking at the fact he had never kneeled to a cunny thus far and how this woman had thrown him off balance in so many ways. He wanted to feast on her, he wanted to greedily suckle the sweet syrup that her body had made as a response to his touch, and he wanted to drown in it. He had never wanted that before but hell if he didn't want it now. Because it was Cora. And In Cora he had trust. He would care for her in every sense of the word.

The fire crackled beside them as he gently pulled at the edges of her delicate lace panties, dragging them down and off her legs slowly, pushing up her thighs and spreading her legs wide for better access. 

As his head dipped, she automatically put her hands to stroke him, her fingers running through the long strands and raking at his scalp gently, pulling him further in as his tongue connected with her sex. Flicking it leisurely over her labia, he then moved to kiss the crease of her thigh, before moving back over to kiss the other one.   
His hot breath down there felt deliciously smothering, but she craved contact where she throbbed and she was growing impatient with his teasing. 

"Alfie .... please..." she begged him breathlessly.

Her panting was driving him wild. He wanted to torture her in the sweetest way, bringing her to the brink before snatching it away again, but he also wanted to ravish her and give her what she needed. He was attempting to balance the two. 

His mouth finally connected with her aching pearl, and she cried out, her back arching upwards. He stilled her with his hands, looking directly at her inner lips which were glistening with both his saliva and her wanton need. Taking his finger tip he rubbed soft circles against her mound, his own need throbbing below him, threatening to make a mess in his underwear. When he pushed a finger inside her, before swiftly adding another one, he felt her tense beneath him at the welcomed intrusion. 

"Alfie ... baby... I'm gonna come apart .." she moaned desperately, encouraging him to drive his fingers deeper and curve them to the spongey piece of her insides that always made her lose it. His tongue found her swollen pearl again, flicking with just the right amount of pressure, before suckling and lapping, fingers thrusting and twisting, her end nearing fast.   
Before he knew it she was gasping, and her walls were pulsing against the thick lengths of his fingers, as she rode them, her hips gyrating against the friction for long moments.   
As she slowed, he left her hastily and clambered over her body, instantly grinding himself between her thighs, feeling her wetness drench the material barrier between them. 

Moaning into her mouth, his hand tenderly around her throat, her slender legs wrapped around his waist, they enjoyed the moments that passed by, making both their nerves tingle, the pressure in their groins, building with every sweet second of affection. 

After time spent in the most sweetest of embraces, he pulled her upwards to get into bed, he was going to make tender, gentle and passionate love to her the way a husband should. 

"Alfie.... let's get by the fire" she whispered pulling his hand back towards it.   
"Are ya cold?" He asked, his arousal still dancing behind his eyes. 

She shook her head. "I've had a desire to let you have me in front of the fire, down on the rug, the heat making us sticky" 

He grinned. 

"Yeah? ... how long have you had that desire you filthy mare?" He said, repeating his joke from the hill. She paused before answering, women weren't supposed to talk this way yet she knew Alfie liked it and it didn't devalue her in his eyes so she continued. 

"Since the first time you lit it and de-flowered me. Since the time I took you in my mouth on your birthday. Since the desk....." she trailed off, biting her lip coyly. 

Alfie's cock twitched at the memories, and it didn't shame him in the slightest, this wanton abashed need he had for this woman was base. All thoughts of tender love making diminished. He was going to fuck her brains out. 

"Get on the floor. Now"


	30. Chapter 30

The sounds from Alfie were louder, he couldn't control them as they escaped his lungs and puffed into her ear beneath him. 

Down on the patterned rug before the fire, he bucked into her like his life depended on it. The heels of her feet held onto the cheeks of his arse in a tight grip as he thrusted, her arms behind her, palms to the floor keeping her steady and somewhat upright. 

Her moans were raspy like she couldn't catch her breath, the sweat making her hornier, the burn of the carpet against her bottom mixing this ultimate pleasure with such a sweet pain. She loved how he let himself go with her, he was devouring her like a starved lion would a blood drenched joint of meat. And she loved it.   
Oh To have him love her was something. But To have him make love to her was a different thing entirely. It was heaven on Earth. 

"I love you" he grunted, interrupting her thoughts.   
"I fucking love you ... gmmmphhh" he said, he was listening to the slap of skin on skin, his lips pursed, his forehead and chest dripping because of the heat from the fire and his heavy ministrations. He clawed at her soft flesh with his brow furrowed, the feeling like nothing he had yet felt, with her, himself, or anyone, and when she held his gaze and started to contract hard against his shaft, whilst staring into his eyes, he came apart with a jet of semen containing undeniable devotion, her name and her skin, allover his lips. 

***************

When Alfie awoke he looked around the dim room, puzzled. Cora was snoring lightly at the side of him in his bed, the comforter had slipped and he could see the creamy flesh of her hip exposed, her back to him. 

He wondered briefly what time it was and how they had even come to be here, and then realised he didn't care. He was going to marry his woman. This woman. The only one he had ever slept next to. He sat up to look for his pocket watch and remembered it was in his trouser pocket, currently dumped in a pile on the floor.

She stirred then, as he rose, turning around becoming accustomed to her own surroundings. 

"What time is it Alfie?" she asked him, turning herself over to face him and letting his hands come down to roam her body, pulling the comforter up over them both as he dived back underneath. 

He tickled at her ribs, making her squirm and pull away from him before the playfulness turned into arousal like it always had a habit of.   
He held her face as he kissed her lips delicately, taking her hand and playing with her new ring as if to remind them both of the promise they had freshly made to each other. As if either one could forget. 

No more words were spoken as he lifted both her hands above her head on the pillow, holding them there by her wrists whilst he used his other hand to guide his blunt and already throbbing member straight to her opening. He just needed to be inside her again. He could still smell himself all over her from the previous night, the scent a further treat to his senses as he heard the breathy moan of his name, as he sunk into her tight warmth, the whole time keeping eye contact that made his belly flip.

He stilled inside her, allowing them both to adjust to the feeling, whilst starting once more on the peppering kisses against her ear lobe, and back to her mouth to let their tongues massage against each other's. Tasting. 

Seconds later, Their Fingers entwined by the headboard, Alfie began to move inside her slowly, each drive feeling deeper than ever before, the achey pressure in her cervix growing tighter and tighter and tighter, as he worked her over. Between each slow, hard and determined thrust of his hips into her, their lips and tongues entwined with more drugging kisses. 

She could feel the fluffiness of his chest hair against her nipples, stimulating her in yet another place as his pubic bone ground against her clit with each movement, she was so close and she held him so tight. 

Finally, Alfie couldn't for the life of him hold on, having her slowly like this somehow did more for him than the ravenous fucking on the bedroom floor only hours ago. 

"I shouldn't keep filling you love, these past few days ..... " he could feel the familiar tingle threatening, spreading upwards from his heavy sack, affecting his speech. 

"I've been a naughty man. I'm gonna end up giving you a baby" he groaned against her ear, his thrusting becoming rougher as he neared his end, unable to wait for hers.

"Alfie it's ok ....flood me with it . I want ten of your babies" she cried out, and he let out a roar of laughter above her that would've killed the moment if it wasn't already upon him. 

He knew for a fact he ain't ever laughed his head off in the midst of an orgasm before but it shut him up fast and the rushing tickle of fire down his spine hit his crotch with a force so hard his laugh turned into a loud groan that was more audible than he had ever allowed himself to be. And he did flood her, it made him cum so hard he had to grit his teeth and scrunch up his eyes as it crashed through him. It was the best sex of his life.

"Fucking Hell" he managed pulling out of her when he had finally stopped ejaculating and their breathing had slowed.  
He flopped down beside her on the mattress and quickly wiped the resulting mess from his body against the sheets. 

"Sorry love..." he said truthfully.   
Cora reached out for his hand and locked his fingers with her own.

They were silent, and Cora heard birds so knew it must be fast closing in of the morning. She bit her lip nervously. She had stayed all night. Her daddy might just have that aneurism after all but at least she could tell him she wasn't spoiled now she was to be a wife. Alfie cut through the silence, stalling her worries.

"Well.... I just fucked my fiancée didn't I?" He said, his grin visible whilst his forearm rested over his eyes, the sweat glistening on his browline. 

"Oh, fucked me did you? I see that romance was exclusive to yesterday Alfie" She chided as she lay dishevelled at the side of him. "Has all chivalry gone now you've got the ring on my finger?" She turned onto her side and propped herself up on her elbow to get a better view of him.   
Her fingers traced a path from his furry chest, down to the line of it leading to his now limp maleness. She swirled her fingers across the hair near his belly button slowly. 

"I ain't ever showed you no chivalry ave I?" he winked at her, cheekily. "You'll be ruining my reputation with waffle like that"

"Well What if we just made love?" She asked quietly.   
He lifted his arm from his eyes and furrowed his brow, his lids narrowing. 

"You know I love you. Of course we just made love, I was only kidding, dint realise you dint like my crudeness little lady.... always thought it made you shiver when I whispered it into yer ears?" And he placed his hand on top of hers on his stomach to reassure her of his tenderness.

"No. I mean yes.... well yes it does" she laughed.   
"I do like it and it does make me shiver. That wasn't what I meant. I was suggesting we might have "made" love."

He furrowed his brow in confusion. 

Oh for goodness sake, bloody men!! I mean we might have put love inside me, made a baby." She said as she looked at his expression. She felt a flicker of panic all of a sudden when he didn't smile at the idea. Well she was going to be his wife, and that's what married couples did, they made children! Wait, What if he didn't want children? They hadn't discussed the matter.

The truth was Alfie's mind had wandered to Rosa and the one he had already made for her. He had been feeling guilty since he found out about the whole sorry thing, that there would be a child in this world that was his and that he didn't want it. That he was going to abandon it. But that one wasn't made from love, that one was made from loneliness, and desperation and let's face it, lack of a better option. And whilst he knew that Rosa would be able to love the bastard, he never could. He would let it go. He had to let it go. 

He looked up at Cora and smiled softly.

"Then I'd be the happiest fucker in the world wunt ah?" he said, making her beam back at him and cuddle into his chest with a satisfied sigh. 

And he meant it, because that baby would be made with the strongest love he had ever felt in his sorry fucking life, and no one was going to ruin this for him.


	31. Chapter 31

_Any minute now. Any minute now ___

__John rapped his fingers on the cold mahogany of his office desk and tried to calm himself by breathing through his nose. He was willing time to pass so he could get this done.  
He reasoned it was a good time to be alone because if another person so much as looked at him right now he would swat them like fly and take a pistol to their temple afterwards for good measure. Today his plan was set in motion and he could barely wait._ _

__He was being kept up to date on the affairs of Alfie and Cora by Erics and Smithies. The two right hands he had used to do his bidding since bidding became beneath him. They were the only two with even half a brain cell and the only ones he hadn't disposed of into the murky slush of the river Thames. Yet._ _

___The letter was delivered sir. ____ _

_____She's stayed the night... __She's stayed the night. ______ _ _ _

________The early morning message echoed around his brain in a silent taunt._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________So his daughter was ruined.  
And now he would ruin the kike Jewish scum that dared to best him in business and had the nerve to lay a dirty fucking finger on his youngest bairn.   
Alfie Solomons had been a thorn in his side for too many years.   
It was time to remove the splinter. _ _ _ _ _ _

________But physical torture or speedy death would be far too unsatisfying an end for John to contemplate. Those options were laughable, for he wanted to see the worm wriggling on the hook. And he wanted Cora to realise it came from the dirt before he buried it again._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________So At 5pm ... Alfie Solomons would watch his world crumble around him. Limbert chuckled to himself sadistically, the thought improving his mood ten fold.  
Oh He would make sure of that. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________******************_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Cora dressed herself in the clothes from the day yesterday, inwardly cringing at her walk of shame this morning.  
Her father must be aware she had stayed at the Solomons residence or he would've been here at 11.05 the previous evening attempting to seek her out. She wondered perhaps if business was good between him and Alfie right now and he saw him as a prospect for her, warming to the idea. Either way she found it strange that no one had looked for her and stopped her from staying the night but she knew she may not be out of the hot water just yet. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Her father was a commodity. She never did see much of him growing up. He spoke about loyalty a lot, but moving to the city she had heard him mention more than one female name to her uncle on his visits to check in. She knew he had a separate life here in the city, one that he had shielded them all from, one that he kept her mother in the dark about. And she supposed that included women and violence of some sort without a doubt.  
She loved him on a level of blood is blood, but When her and Alfie had children she would make sure that he was nothing at all like the man she knew as a father. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Alfie stuck his head around the door_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"Are yah decent?" He asked, peeking his head around, the aroma of breakfast hitting her through the door._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________She chuckled. "Some would say not anymore Alfie" ..._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"Nonsense" he said, coming into the room and sitting beside her. He was fully clothed for work and helped her to button up her lilac dress at the back, his thick stubs of fingers fumbling in an attempt to fasten delicate buttons. She loved the effort he put in to tending to her._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"We ain't done nothin improper sweetie. This is what's done ... people who love each other want to mount each other .. it's nature innit?" He smirked at her. She looked doubtful, wondering again about the chastising she might face on her return home today._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"Besides" he said, crouching down with hardship, and groaning at his knee, as he helped her to put on her stockings, rolling them gently up her slender calves._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"You ain't laid with just anyone. You've laid with me and I'm gonna be your husband aren't I? That's proper that is.. " he said with a wag of his finger.  
"and it's happenin real soon if I get my way. Fuck the standard courtship... I want you with my second name ..yesterday! And then I want you full of my baby." he growled, rubbing her tummy as he yanked her up and placed a rough and chaste kiss against her mouth as she giggled girlishly. Alfie loved the sound of it almost as much as the soft moans she made in the throes of climax. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"C'mon woman... stop griping anyhow ... your eggs and coffee are gettin cold"._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Alfie guided her from the room, towards the kitchen and promptly served her a tray of eggs, bacon, mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes fried on the stove._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Since he had to fend for himself his whole life he could cook pretty much anything when the need arose and the ingredients were there. If there was one thing Alfie liked it was a fully stocked pantry. On his watch, no one he gave a simple toss about would ever go hungry. Of course, she would wanna be cooking for him once she moved in here, he thought, that was a woman's pride and he thought the idea nice, someone to take care of him for the first time._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________He reminded himself to have that discussion soon. This all needed to happen quickly. He needed to get the ceremony arranged, get her moved in and get her in a condition so that she could never just up and have away.  
If all this lying hidden in the shadows was exposed before that, well it might not happen and that was not a fuckin option. He wouldn't let her go. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"Tuck in then! But leave some room mind, dessert is spotted dick" he declared, as Cora spat out her orange juice against a quickly recovered napkin she had placed on her lap._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________"Alfie Solomons!" She glared incredulously, but with unconfined smirk across her lips, beguiling her false disapproval._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Alfie chuckled and shovelled his kosher sausages and toasted bread into his mouth in the most indelicate manner, which left crumbs in his beard and moustache. It was a manner that suited him down to the ground and made Cora love him ever more._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________***************_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________At 3:00pm, Rosaleigh had already had a full shift of five men. Since Alfie had stopped calling on her, the income had dropped significantly and she was barely surviving. John took the lions share of any money made at the house.  
As a result, Her hip bones jutted from under the threadbare slip as she collected her coin from the dresser and put it into her shallow pot as the man with no face left her.   
She looked at them when they came to her, she had to. But each man that took her body never took her soul if she looked straight through them not really seeing them at all.   
It was how she coped with giving herself again. She had to disconnect to get through it and it was worse now than when she has first been forced into it by her uncle at seventeen. _ _ _ _ _ _

________The only man she had ever allowed to really have her was Alfie. And he would soon be gone from her forever. Once he found out about her deception, even at the hands of John and who he really was, she doubted he would have the same compassion he had shown in the letter when he believed her to be growing his child.  
She knew he was not a forgiving man and would blame her just as much as John for his downfall and she could hardly bear it. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________But then of course there was one thing on her mind that gave her an inkling of hope that Alfie would be ok. He had found love, and love could sustain anything providing it was two fold. She might have been bereft of any real love her whole life but that didn't mean she didn't believe in it. Without her faith in that she was frightful she might choose to leave this world by her own hands.  
No, if Alfie loved this Cora girl and she felt the same, then he would always be ok, no matter what happened to him today. And that she was counting on._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________As 5:00pm drew closer, Her nerves mounted, considering what John would do to Alfie when he came to the house. She watched the minutes tick by on the clock mounted on the wall, a great sense of sickly unease settling in her gut. She willed herself to have hope as she sprayed herself with the lavender oil that he loved._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Rosaleigh Pilkington, however, never saw 5:00pm at all._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Hope was a mistake._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _


	32. Chapter 32

Alfie sat behind his desk later that afternoon, clutching the piece of paper in his hands and contemplating his predicament.  
When he had left home that morning, he had picked the letter up from his mat by the door that said "welcome".  
This letter however, was not welcome at all.

After dropping Cora off at her uncles house, and telling her to take the day to relax, and he would be back for her in the evening, he had left her on cloud nine while he wandered into a dark fog and had gone straight to his bakery to find out his fate. 

He started to re-read the words before him, hardly believing they had been written by Rosaleigh at all, had it not been her handwriting, because the venom in them didn't seem like a way in which she would act. He had called her all the abominable names he could think of when last in her presence and still she had remained ever the lady and sat crying silently. This didn't seem like the person he had known for years but then again he hadn't acted as the person she had known either. There were too many raw emotions involved here to show any type of etiquette.  
He adjusted his half moon spectacles that hung on a chain around his neck and furrowed his brow with frustration, the age lines becoming ever deeper, finally telling on his face. 

His old friend mister rage, was bubbling under the surface of his calm and collected demeanour, threatening to start a fire bigger than hell and throw this woman into it. The very nerve! 

He read again.

// Alfie,

I know about the young girl you are courting. To be honest I'm surprised she has lowered herself to be interested in a violent, lower class thief such as yourself. 

Her class will never allow scum like you into it, even if she is taken with you at the moment, it will never last.

I wonder? .. would your rich bitch be interested to know of me? Would she be interested to know you have fathered a bastard child with a lower class city whore? I expect not. 

I expect she would turn her back on the information and then YOU in the process. 

In regards to your letter to me: I am not to be bought so easily.  
If you are wanting me to disappear without a trace back to you, I will need £700 down payment today. Your £300 insults me. 

After that, I will need £7,000 in full. It will set me and YOUR child up for life, and that way I won't have to count on guarantees given to me by born liars. 

Just so you know Alfie, I now have protection. You are not the only man of power who has visited me over these years gone by. If you think you can dispose of me savagely, you will seal your own fate.  
Attend the house at 5:00 of the eve, Tuesday, Nov 15 and bring with you my £700.

If anything happens to me there or after, I have a little letter of my own addressed to: 

Miss Cora Limbert  
Barbury House  
Camden Town  
It is just waiting to be hand delivered by my protection should you not comply.

Rosaleigh  
//

Alfie ran his hands through his hair and sat back in his seat.  
It stung. It really did. In fact, it hurt like fuck.  
And her demands weren't even a possibility he could comprehend, no matter if he had wanted to. 

£7,000 would bankrupt him. He would have to sell the bakery to the highest bidder for starters, his pride and joy. And that highest bidder would more than likely be snakey fucking Sabini too. Or worse! Cora's cunt of a dad. He couldn't stomach that.  
Then he would have to give over his savings set aside from investments before the war, and sell Epsom to the Peaky fucks, as well as auction the home that held his parents.  
He would be nothing without his fortune. Nothing. Like before. Just a lower class Jewish pauper again. His stomach groaned as if in sympathy and as a reminder of his hungry youth.  
He would rather die than suffer that fate, he thought. He had built himself up his whole life and survived a world fucking war! He wasn't about to be blackmailed and bent over with his arse had by a two-bit whore. "Mysterious protection" Alfie let out a forced laugh that echoed in his office. He wasn't scared of anyone. Never fucking had been. 

His mind drifted to Cora then, and the wonderful day he had experienced in her company yesterday. Would she still be so willing to submit to his offer of marriage if he was nothing but a factory worker who could no longer support or protect her interests?  
He actually suspected that she still would, he knew her love to be genuine, he could see it etched on her face everytime their heads had lain side by side on his pillows, her soft face stroked by his calloused hands. She loved all the flaws she knew of.  
But moral standing was everything and it would shame her to be with him if he had no fortune to give such an upper class girl, deep down he had always suspected he wasn't good enough for her, and here he might just be proved right by society and a fickle prostitute.

He pictured him and Cora together as man and wife as it should be, living in his town house, imagining a Future. He visioned an early summer morning and her singing her country music gently under her breath as she trimmed his beard by the bathroom basin. She was wearing an expensive nightgown chemise that he had bought her from the most expensive ladies clothes boutique in higher end London. The one they went to on the weekends before afternoon tea with buttered scones, her favourite. In the bathroom, Cora's hair was loose, with the wave to it that made him crazy, and she was tending to him carefully, her sweet brow furrowed with the concentration on her task as she cared for her new husband. Alfie let himself kiss the line between her brows to loosen it, and inhale the scent of her rose talcum powder applied to her supple skin just after her bath. His eyes rolled back as he imagined his gaze drifting to her soft curves, her hourglass figure, petite but rounded. Especially her belly, which would be full of his son.  
His thoughts turned to their wedding night, of every kind of magic he knew it was going to be and he made up his mind. 

He would take £700 to Rosa at 5:00pm. She wouldn't get another penny thereafter.  
Then he would own up to Cora about the whole sorry lot, and hope like fuck for the best. If she loved him like he loved her, then there was hope for them yet. 

****************

After putting on his dress coat and removing wads of cash from his cast iron safe, he counted note by crisp note the correct amount, before placing it within a rubber band and into his coat, the rest going back inside. He patted the material of his pocket as he locked up for the day. It was 4:30pm and the workers were still consumed in the distillery with another half an hour to go. A few men in aprons, their faces dusted with flour and a pungent alcohol aroma surrounding them, took note of their employer leaving early yet again.  
Mr Solomons had changed since the new secretary took his fancy, work was no longer his bread and butter, and he was more lenient with Late shippings and lax work. No one had seen the worn end of his cane for a number of weeks now, an unheard of victory for men on the mill floor who were used to the viscous and violent ways that Alfie had previously used to run his bakery. 

He nodded to Bennet on his way out

"Lock up for us Benny Boy.. will yer? Duty calls." Alfie said, giving nothing away despite the coiling anxiety swirling in his belly. He hadn't eaten today that was probably the beginning and end of that and he made a mental note to take Cora to the fish and chip restaurant in the east end that served the best scampi in batter he had ever tasted. It even had that tartar sauce shit he knew the posh people loved. He once took a woman there that had never even tried it and she was mightily impressed which led to the best cock suck he'd ever had. Until Cora. He shook his head guiltily.

"No problem boss. Keep outta trouble yeah?" Bennet shouted after him. 

Alfie turned and tipped his hat. Bennet always was more of a friend than a skivvy and he promised himself to remedy that too when all this shit was over and he got his life back to normal. Time he reaped some type of reward.

"Follows me around mate!" He called back to him with a wink.

Alfie took to his motor that was kept at the back of the bakery in its own hold. He hadn't drove this baby in a while, probably not since the last time he had attended Rosa and the thought made him shiver as he started the engine, to the sound of the rattling suspension. He wondered why he had spent so long going to her for relief when the biggest relief of all was having someone love him. He had been so resistant to the thought, treating women as a means to a physical end, fucking, and well yeah...chucking.  
And he'd be damned if he ever giv'it a single second thought. He had wasted many years being empty inside without the love of a good woman and he thanked the sweet Jesus he was once opposed to, that Cora Limbert was more than willing to give him it. 

As he pulled up outside the whore house he noticed it was completely pitch black which was unusual as business was at this time normally excessive.  
More than once he had waited whilst a gentlemen left Rosa's room in order to make way for Alfie after work, all the single and half the married men of Camden turned to this place after shift for a good rut with a woman before they had their evening meal and rested in the evenings with their families. 

Like a doe in a field hearing the unexpected rustle of a predator in long grass, Alfie's ears pricked up and his fine hairs all over his body stood on end. His intuition told him Something was amiss, he felt like he may have been lured here for a beating. 

With great caution, he went around the back, through the side gate of the house. His leg was giving him trouble again today and he limped pathetically down the path that led to the back door, stepping carefully over rubbish and kicking at a rat. 

Alfie wasn't one to back down. He could take a beating and he could deliver one mercilessly when the need took. Many a Scallywag had discovered this the hard way, and today he was mightily irritated enough to dole one out. His fists, adorned with the brass and gold rings he always wore, flexed and curled in his pockets as he reached the wooden door. 

He had been in the back rooms before when helping Harold with the odd maintenance job or to lift boxes for the old bugger. He knew this door had a weak hinge and he knew it wouldn't be too hard to break through it. He had told Harold to make it more secure and he knew he wasn't a man to listen when it came to spending money on things he deemed unnecessary. The whole place had needed a good renovation yet it rarely saw a fresh lick of paint. 

With skilled precision from years of breaking and entering properties, Alfie was soon stood in the darkened back room that was used as a type of goods storage cellar.  
There were stock of his own rum in the hatch, as well as some spirits and cigarette rations. He listened carefully for noise in the house and yet heard nothing. 

He thought it strange that Rosa would be here alone, knowing the danger that he could impose on her due to her attempt at blackmail. To shut shop up would cost money and now he wasn't lining her pockets he doubted that was a luxury she could afford even to accommodate a meeting with him.  
He had a feeling that her and her protection were waiting on the other side of the door leading to the lobby and reception. But this time Alfie was thinking with brawn instead of brain. He was seething, the veins in his neck prominently bulging, the veins in his strong hands like wires, transferring the electric current of base anger to his mind. He could kill right now, he was going to end this today, he had allowed it to get way out of hand and he intended to let them know he was in charge in the best way he knew how.

Drawing his pistol and checking it was loaded and ready to go, Alfie opened the door slowly inch by inch and heard it creak on its hinges. The lobby was dark. Too dark, and as his eyes adjusted he saw, and the Lord strike him down if he was lying, something that he would never have expected. 

Rosaleigh was laid out dead on the floor before him. Her limbs were spreadeagled into weird angles, and her body was bare and bruised. 

There was no doubting she was dead, the blood from her head wound had trickled a river of dark blood through her once fire hair, and seeped generously around her onto the carpet like a red blanket. She looked as grey as an overcast day.  
Alfie's heart pounded hard, taking the very breath from his lungs with a painful wretch and his vision clouded with shock and what he realised were watery tears, but he recovered quick. 

He had to get out now. This wasn't good. 

He pelted faster than he had in years, back through the door in which he came, down the steps into the cellar room and into the back courtyard. It was like his leg was one of a young buck, never damaged by war, any pain illuminated by the pure terrifying surge of adrenaline and the need to flee a fucking murder scene. 

He looked at the six-foot fencing adorning the yard and knew he hadn't a hell's chance in crawling it. His car was parked out front and he was pretty sure no one had seen him arrive. He had to go back the way he had came, so he headed down the path at a speed of dogs seeking out hare.

He rounded the corner and hit something solid before he even knew what it was. It took him a moment to realise after he hit his head on the cold stone of the cobbled floor, the pain in his bad leg returning with a vengeance, that it was another human being.  
One in uniform.  
A copper, with ten more behind him.  
Alfie groaned as he was dragged to his fumbling feet, his hat hitting the ground and falling into a murky puddle. 

"Alfred Solomons...." the pig shouted as he wrestled with Alfie's defending arms to drag him to the front of the house. 

"We've been waiting a long time for this day old friend" he laughed, above Alfie's voice that was shouting obscenities as more officers curled his arms forcibly behind his back, the cuffs placed, his knees kicked til he hit the uninvited soggy floor of London. There was no use yet to tell them it weren't him. It was a perfect crime scene.

"They're gonna put you away and throw away the fucking key... dirty Jew" another said as he spat at Alfie, it landing in the beard that was now wet with blood and salty rain. 

He bowed his head, submitting because it was no use, he was done for. He had walked right into a fucking trap and couldn't believe he had been so brutishly stupid and naive to have gone there alone, he thought he was dealing with a woman, not realising it was deeper than he could've comprehended in a million years. As his body was pummelled at by booted feet, his mind couldn't focus on who would want to take him down in such a savage way. The answer was given to him the very next moment, like God himself had provided it. 

"Thank you Mr Limbert. We will remove the poor girls body and be in touch" said an officer.

Alfie's head snapped straight up, where his piercing eyes landed on the overweight, well dressed wanker before him. John Limbert. They locked gazes before Alfie was delivered a blow to the back of the head and everything in his world went black.


	33. Chapter 33

Corah sat on the velvet lined chair pulled up to her wooden dresser as she adjusted her earrings into place via the mirror. 

She looked at the little pocket photograph that she had of Alfie that was taken with her camera when they went to the market. He had the brass horse in his arm and a look of harassment on his face that told her he really did not want to hold the thing. She laughed quietly to herself as she thanked her lucky stars that she had found someone like him. He made her smile and laugh like no one ever had, whilst making her feel fiercely protected and valued, and .... well.... wanton. The feeling of being desired to the extent a man should fall apart in his office and have to have you over the very desk he made his livelihood on, well that did a lot for a girl's sense of pride.  
She blushed as she thought of him taking her so roughly and using her hips as an anchor to hold onto as he rutted like a beast to reach his end. Then she thought about the times he would support her legs as they spread for him on the bed, revealing her womanhood, while he suckled on her sensitive pearl that held the key to all of her desires, making love to her afterwards gently.

She was burning up at the thought and couldn't wait to see him again. Her fiancée. He had said he would come and collect her at 7pm for an evening meal and somehow now they were freshly engaged the whole relationship felt brand new and even more exciting than before. It had that welcome knowledge that they belonged to each other, bound by a promise, displayed by a diamond.  
She wondered as she got up and walked over to her dress that laid out on her bed, wether it would always be this way. She wondered wether he would always desire her so, even if she was of a plumper disposition, having borne his children, becoming stuffy and too tired for late night rendevoux. Would he crave ageing Cora Solomons like he did deviant Cora Limbert?  
She knew that she would never tire of him and she imagined his house as it would be soon, as their house. That ghastly royal blue of the bedroom drapes would have to go of course, and he would have to install a more proper washroom facility than his existing humble camode, and scratchy copper tub, porcelain was necessary for a lady to have a deep soak of an evening. She envisioned the time they would spend in there, doused in scented oils and uninhibited lust.  
His study would be rather nicely presented as a library she thought, and lord knows Cora had hundreds of books from days spent in boredom in the countryside manor of her parents estate. The very romance novels that led her to wander in search of her Prince Charming. The one on the horse, that would now sit proudly in brass form on their shared mantlepiece. Yes, she could easily fill a room with those old books, and that nice bay window could quite easily be turned into a squishy seated reading nook for rainy days where they would stay inside, in the bliss of each other's company and read, sip tea and fornicate.  
Oh she had it all planned out. Perhaps the room might one day be a nursery, she mused, biting her lip in a shy smile at the prospects their future marriage held.  
She slipped into her dress, checking the time once again and wondering why Alfie was late. She brushed her hair repeatedly, just for good measure and then descended the stairs. She could hear a rumble of voices below and as she drew nearer she recognised the growl of her fathers, rolling her eyes as she waited for his expected inquisitions about the intentions of Alfie Solomons the gangster Jew and what he thought was his proper and sweet little girl lost. 

***********

"Daddy?" Cora said as she rounded the hall corner to the kitchen and seen him standing there, his black bowler hat spinning in his hands, her uncle and aunt sat solemnly nearby at the kitchen table. 

"What's wrong, is mama ok?" She asked, sensing the tension in the room and the pitying looks on the faces of her family.  
Her initial suspicion was that someone must have died and she clutched her chest in preparation for the blow.

"Cora ... mama is fine. Come with me to the drawing room." It wasn't a request but an order and she followed him with an air of confusion out of the kitchen, chancing a look back at her relatives, her aunt looking almost tearful. 

"Sit down girl" he said, and she obliged instantaneously, straightening her skirts underneath herself.  
Her father cleared his throat, his bowler hat still twisting in his weathered hands. 

"Today I was called out to one of my businesses. A house that I believed to have been run as a guest house, for weary travellers and so forth....." 

Cora couldn't see at all where this would be going. He hadn't ever talked to her about his "businesses" and she had no idea their intel included guest houses. 

"You see I was called by the police because a girl from this place particular house had been murdered, rather brutally one might add" 

"Dear god" said Cora, her heart jolting. "Daddy that's terrible, in your own building too! Was she a local girl?" Cora felt concerned. 

"You could say that yes, she was a local prostitute" he said matter of factly, pausing to hear Coras gasp and then continuing.  
"Apparently my house was being used against my knowledge as a place for unsavoury men to spend time with ladies of the night and paying for their service." He explained, his lip curling in fake disgust. Coras disgust was real, but why was he telling her this? He kept them shielded from the grit of his London life and always had. Everything she knew of it she had only overheard. 

"Daddy what does this mean? Why are you here and telling me so?" She asked, still as confused as ever. 

John waited for effect. Turning his hat, which was turning Coras stomach, knotting it further in anticipation of the news. 

"This prostitute was with child. And the child was of an illegitimate conception formed by a local businessman who wanted nothing to do with it."  
He sat down beside her then, holding her hand in his own, noticing the diamond ring sparkling by her dainty knuckle and frowning.  
"The police believe this girl was murdered because she got caught pregnant, and the man wanted rid of the both of them, the man wanted rid so they didn't ruin the lie of a life he was making for himself." 

"Daddy I don't understand.... " she sounded desperate now. 

"Cora, the murderer was Alfred Solomons".

There was intake of breath so sharp it could've been made by a blade and the bile rose up in her throat before she could stop it. She ran to the window sill and raised up the latch, just in time to watch the contents of her breakfast spill onto the street.  
Her heart was hammering a beat into her ears, a waterfall of emotions gushing right behind her eyes. 

Her physical reaction bore nothing to the actual gut-wrenching pain she felt in the pit of her stomach and the wail she heard sounded so unfamiliar as it curled in direction from her own chest and out through her throat towards her father. 

"No no no ..... no ... Alfie wouldn't. Alfie couldn't .... he wouldn't do this... there's some mistake, there's some terrible injustice, he's... he's not like that" she mumbled as she sunk to the floor surrounded by her skirts. 

"Sweetheart it's the truth. Police have found him at the murder scene, with weapon in hand, stolen money in his pockets and an undeniable motive. There is a letter asking her to take money and flee with the child. When she refused... well he took care of it. I guess he didn't want his debauchery with whores revealed to you. He has been locked up and is to be tried with immediate effect. I'm afraid the brute is done for" he spoke in a deadpan tone that was not of any comfort and only sought to draw her pain out more. 

"Cora love, this man as you knew from the beginning, is bad news. He's killed more innocents than I've had hot dinners" he jiggled his belly then, accompanied by an insensitive chuckle that reverberated through her skull. "And as you can see I've had my fair share of those." 

She finally allowed herself to cry. Tears of sorrow falling down her face. She felt betrayed beyond measure.

"I'll leave you alone for a few moments Cora ... I need to speak again with your uncle." He left the room without giving a morsel of comfort to his devastated daughter, sat in a ball of pain upon the floor, her whole life suddenly changed forever. 

*******

Half an hour later, her aunt had entered with a cup of tea, followed shortly after by her father and uncle.  
Her father had spoke about his plan to have her taken back to the country manor her mother resided in with immediate effect. At one point in time she would have point blank refused and defied her father just for the hell of it, she was known for doing so and had made it a mission since her teenage years, rebellion running through her very veins. However right now, home and her mama seemed like a comforting option. She pictured the house surrounded for miles by gardens, green and wholesome, with flowers lining the tall fences that once caged her, how ironic it would be that they would now shield her. 

"Il come with you daddy. I want to leave London. Il pack my things straight away." She said, standing, knocking over the tea that had somehow been placed in her lap without her realisation.  
"It's ok Cora love, you go on upstairs and pack and change, il take care of this mess" said her aunt, rushing to fetch a mop. 

Cora almost smirked on her way up the stairs, and if she wasn't so numb she might've. Because she knew the mess in her life could never be taken care of. Not now. If Alfie had indeed committed a crime so brutal then he was as good as dead to her. And so her heart was rigid. She took off the crystal ring, the newness of it reflecting glints of rainbow from the light stream through the bedroom window pane. She kissed it, salty tears making it wet as she removed it from her finger and flung it down into the drab and muddy flower bed below.

She would leave tomorrow. But first, she needed to see Alfie and hear his explanations from the horses mouth. Because once she left London, she was never coming back.


	34. Chapter 34

Alfie's head was throbbing, his ribs battered and his eye swelling. He had blood on his hands and while mingled with his own it was not just his that congealed there. He had given as much as he could once he was thrown into the cell and set upon by three officers. Thrown mercilessly into the lions den, and people wondered why he hated the law. To his satisfaction the biggest lout had ended up with a split upper lip that had risen to twice its size by the time he left the cell, of course he made Alfie's lip quadruple the size as payback but he still had his pride.

Of all his ailments though, his worst thought inducing brain ache lay with Cora, the woman he had let down, it stabbed at his gut like a serrated knife, he hadn't wanted her to learn about Rosa this way, how would she trust him now? How would he make her believe it was not him to commit the final deed whilst explaining that he had in fact thought the woman to be pregnant with his child and kept all that from her.  
His conscience may have shifted to Rosaleigh too, but of course he was currently chewing on a brick in that respect, given the newest revelation. 

Alfie had been roaring in protestation as he was transferred to the city prison by police vehicle, sandwiched between two officers. He had told them of the baby, and made it loudly known that he would never kill a woman, let alone a woman carrying his bairn. 

Early this morning, the smug officer with the fat lip had taken great joy in announcing the fact that the murdered woman was childless. He was quite certain of the fact she had been found with an empty womb at autopsy and he went on to gloat at the fact she had tricked him for fortune, and he had so forth killed her and ruined his life for nothing. Alfie had been dumbfounded and spent the last few hours fathoming her motives, now just enraged beyond all past measure.

When the fog of his attacks had started to lift slightly during the dawning hours, his eyes less groggy from dried blood, the sorry devastation was revealed to him in its entirety, dawning across his beaten face in the darkness. 

John Limbert owned the house, John Limbert owned Rosaleigh. John Limbert had owned him. And because of his infatuation with the man's daughter, he had never seen it coming. 

 

********

Cora slept not a wink the night after her father's revelations. Once her shock and anger subsided she was left with a feeling of remorse at her jump to put Alfie in the firing line.  
The thought of him cavorting with whores made her stomach twist and left a putrid taste in her mouth. Just what kind of man had she given her body to? One that used unsavoury women for pleasure and could have in turn given her a disease? Why could she not believe this, had her lust fuelled mind really been so misguided in its judgement of his character. It was like her father was talking of another man that neither of them knew. But she knew Alfie so well, better than anyone, did she not? He had told her that be the truth but she was swiftly reminded that they had only known each other a few short weeks.  
Cora was of course aware that Alfie was a feared and violent gangster in London, but murdering the innocent for his own gains, was no more believable to her in this moment than her own hand doing so. 

However if he was sleeping with street whores in seedy houses, and being a master at his manipulations, perhaps she was wrong about it all. Perhaps he had fooled her to gain fortune or get to her father through marrying her. Oh Her heart hurt so much, her brain tugged her this way and that, endless possibilities playing before her displaying both sides of the jaded coin, she could barely continue to breathe through the torment, and she wondered what horrors Alfie faced this very moment on his own. She wanted to go to him and give comfort but....right on cue the thought of him with a whore made her want to vomit. She naively believed him to have been a popular bachelor, who occasionally kept the company of a high end lady who he courted properly. Not the seedy world of prostitutes and the type of animal sex that can lead to a baby. 

As she heard a voice sounding awfully like Alfie's calling to her in the distance, saying her name, making her feel safe but drowsy, she fathomed her mind was running away with her yet again. She was delirious, and she was jumping to conclusions. She hadn't even heard Alfie's side yet, though she didn't know what he could say that would make this whole sordid mess go away, not instantly at least, for the police had him bang to rights, and surely the law knew what they were talking about?  
She couldn't bear to see him in prison, hurting and alone, it would break her heart into two no matter the depth of his sin, but she needed to hear his voice, feel his strong palms clasp her own smaller ones and reassure her that this was all one big mistake. Maybe Alfie had it under control? Maybe when she woke in the morning this had all been one God awful dream...... 

**************

Alfie was allowed two visits the following day and the prison advisor told him it would be wise to enlist a solicitor and call that meeting immediately.  
Alfie brushed the man off and informed him that there would only be two visitors he would allow to come to him at this time.  
"Arthur Bennet, and Cora Limbert. No one else" 

He had the request sent in from Bennet straight away and nodded an appreciation for the man he classed more of a brother than his actual siblings, who for the matter had not sent any requests of their own. He didn't have one from Cora and his stomach nearly fell out of his arse at the realisation he may have lost her forever. 

When he spoke to Bennet, the man was panicking like a molly and he asked him if he had brought in any tranquilliser. Bennet had replied that he hadn't and why would Alfie ask such a strange thing. Alfie replied it was to fucking shut him up because he couldn't give orders to a Queen and if he wasn't behind a glass panel he would lamp him one. It seemed to do the trick. 

Bennet listened as he was given instruction for the bakery, the distillery and the safe. He was told to get in touch with the peaky blinders pronto, for his alliances were well needed, especially from those who were already sworn enemies with John Limbert.  
Bennet had been amazed at the revelations on John and agreed to dig around on the man's undercover empire that Alfie had stupidly never bothered to dig into, presuming no bones could be unearthed. He had underestimated him by miles and it didn't sit well.  
He needed sabini back on side and he needed someone, anyone to back up his story. He gave instruction to pay visits to old Harold, and some of the whores of the original house who Alfie knew had to know something about John and Rosa. He needed a witness, someone to testify that John wanted to hurt Rosa, and in turn Alfie and by setting him up for the fall, he stood a lot more to gain than anyone.  
Bennet left a man on a mission, determined not to let his boss and friend down. 

His first stop when he left the prison and travelled by car, seemed highly impractical and a little fucking stupid if he dared to pass judgment himself. Up on the hills of Richmond, Bennet picked the purple heather with delicacy, tying it with ribbon as instructed, as he descended back to the waiting car below.

His second stop was Barbury house, Camden Town.


	35. Chapter 35

Cora stirred the weak tea loaded in a china cup and saucer absent-mindedly whilst staring into its swirly depths. 

"Miss? .. Did yer 'ear me?.. D'you want me to fetch our Helena? See if you could maybe discuss it wi'er ... see if she can talk some sense into.... "  
Bennet didn't get the chance to finish before the sound of metal against wood sounded as the teaspoon was dropped against the table they sat at in her uncles kitchen.   
The flowers he had brought with him were laid flat at the side of the teapot. 

"Sense?" She asked him loud and rhetorically.   
"Sense.... Arthur?" 

Now Bennet was a veteran of the Great War and had fought gallantly like a beast yet he yielded, like most men, when he recognised a woman's clipped tone. He might find himself with a boxed ear'ole if he dared to answer or continue his direction of persuasion, so he stayed silent, fingers fumbling on his lap and eyes falling to them, not saying a word more.

"There isn't no sense to any of this shit!"   
She said angrily, whilst he tried to disguise the small smirk on his mouth when he heard her curse. He used to think her and Alfie weren't suited, that she was too much of a lady to satisfy the urges of a gangster like him, who was practically no gentleman at all and couldn't be further away from the Mr Darcy types she was probably used to. However watching them together and witnessing how his boss became so enamoured with the little thing before him, doing anything in his power to please her and how in turn she became enraptured with him in equal measures? well he thought they were perfect for one another. She was the softness to his hardness, he thought, before spluttering out a mouthful of his tea as her eyebrows raised at him like he just spoke that aloud.  
He just meant soft nature against a hard one... shit it wasn't his intention to be perverted. 

But yeah they were meant to be alright, Even if she had been around Alfie too long ... to be cursing and raging like his own damn self. 

"Are you telling me that my father is a liar Arthur?" She asked him quietly, sniffling and taking out a small white hankerchief to dab at the base of her reddened nose.   
It was a loaded question, as he could see from her pleading eyes that she wanted him to say yes, that her dad was indeed the liar, and not her Alfie. He wished that he could put her mind at rest but the truth was he didn't even know the truth himself. Alfie had killed countless innocents ... he had butchered fathers, uncles, neighbours and sons and sent them straight to fucking hell for more years than this princess had probably been able to talk, and yet he had never seen the man so much as raise his voice to a lady never mind a fist or a pistol. Not once and he had known him but 30 years. The man was a Rottweiler in business and a fluffy poodle with the ladies, most likely stemming from the way he was raised to treat them. Bennet chuckled. If his boss knew he was comparing him to a poodle he would likely nail him to the cross for his sins. 

"What's funny?" Cora said bringing him back to his task in hand and Bennet shook his head. There's nothing she would find funny here.

Alfie had demanded that Bennet pick Cora the flowers to remind her of the engagement setting on the hill and then to persuade her to go to the prison to visit him in the flesh.  
He said he needed to explain everything to her before he lost her forever.   
Bennet thought he should spend more time concentrating on a way out of the lock and key situation he found himself in than talking his way out of the doghouse with the missus, but Alfie only cared about Cora and how she felt about him being labelled with this crime. It's all he could concentrate on in there. And that's a lot of hours with nothing but your thoughts.

"I can't come Arthur.. I can't face him. How can I possibly face him." She said with a tone of despair as she placed her head in her hands. Her nails looked short like she had bitten them to the very wicks. 

"Besides my father would never allow that. He believes him a murderer Arthur, don't you understand? A cold blooded killer of women and babies .. would you allow your own daughter to visit such a monster?" She asked.

He thought about his answer to that question long and hard before he answered her before got up to take his leave. He had a peaky blinder to visit.

"See I believe otherwise ma'am ... and if you agree for one moment with your father then you're right.... you shouldn't visit him. Because Alfie deserves loyalty, and he's never not delivered that to me in 30 years.   
So in all fairness, I would go and collect my daughter from her mothers arms this very moment and take her to visit her uncle Alfie."   
Cora swallowed her guilt once more.

"Because Cora we both know that he's not a monster.. not yet, but he's a desperate man without his woman. And the longer you leave him without a chance to redeem himself to you, you're breaking him down into nothing. You're doing that. You're gonna make him a monster. He doesn't want your forgiveness, he wants you to know everything, so that you can make a proper choice to give him it or not. That's all he wants, and like fuck he deserves that".

He retrieved his hat from the corner of the chair and rose up, the sound of the scraping, wooden legs on stone floor made Cora jump. She was so jumpy since it happened. She felt weak and she needed her strength but he was locked up in a 4x4. 

"Here's the visiting order Miss." Bennet said, placing the paper next to the heather stems.

"All I'm asking is don't throw it away." He said as he left.

Cora wondered wether he was referring to throwing away the paper, or her relationship.  
The truth was, she already knew Alfie didn't do it.   
Intuition, love, sixth sense- call it what you will. 

It was just her own emotional turmoil that had prevented her from seeing him, because when it was revealed to her she had doubted him, she really had, for fleeting moments none the less, yet she had.   
And what kind of wife-to-be did that make her?   
She didn't know how she was supposed to look him in the eye. Those grey haunting eyes that would darken like rain clouds when angry or glint blue at her when aroused... 

Cora delved under the sink and retrieved the best whiskey her uncle had, which he kept for special occasions and important visitors.   
She removed the crystal stopper and threw a generous shot into her tea, knocking it back in one go and wincing at the burn.

In her best coat and hat, she slipped the visiting order deep into the lining of her purse and left the house, smelling the heather she held in her hand as she hailed a carriage from the cobbled street.

"Where to miss?" The driver asked her with a small, friendly smile on his lips.

She replied with an unwavering sense of newfound determination.

"Pentonville institution please."


	36. Chapter 36

Alfie narrowed his eyes against the light that shone through the crack in the door of his new home, his cell.   
He had to urinate in a hole in the corner and the smell of ammonia danced up his nostrils when the door swung open and created a draught. 

"Get the fuck up then dirty Jew... got a visitor haven't ya!" The guard spat at him. 

Alfie had resigned himself to the fact that Cora didn't want to know him and was expecting Bennet back again this afternoon with news on the investigation and his gathering of information to get him out. But it was only a couple of hours since he left, surely a meet with the peaky blinders wouldn't have been possible by now. Maybe it was his mother. 

"Fancy little piece of flesh too I'd say Solomons." The guard said as he slowly attached the chain to Alfie's handcuffs and started to lead him onwards like a mutt towards the main stations. 

"I mean she ain't got her globes on display but I can just tell she's hiding big fleshy ones under there, the kind that wobble when you fuck her six ways from Sunday whilst she's on her back" the man dug at Alfie's ribs and began to laugh.   
"Maybe now you're banged up I ought to try a little taster on the way out, lift her skirts for a feel of that moist little lady-like cunny" he paused to see if Alfie would take the bait but he was met with silence apart from the sound of their boots on the stone floor as they walked.   
"Young thing she is an' all. You not a bit old and crippled for the likes of her Solomons? Bet you can only take it belly up."

Alfie was breathing heavily and chewing his bottom lip. His heart was hammering and not because of the officers goading but because it was undoubtedly Cora that was visiting him. Who else could it be? 

"That'll be John Limberts daughter you're talking of then?" Alfie said finally in retaliation, with a look that could kill a thousand men by making them jump in the Thames before he reached them and carried out his revenge. He bore the eyes under his frown right into the man's own and folded his lips so his beard jutted outwards from his neck.

The man's eyes then widened as they reached the door to the visiting station. Everyone knew the gangsters of the town, especially the tales of murder and violence committed by their vicious hands and working in the prison service he probably heard them day in day out. He coughed and spluttered about how he was just having a laugh and how he hadn't meant nothing by it, and Alfie would've indeed laughed at the man's arse hole falling out onto the floor if he hadn't been so sick with fucking nerves. 

"Open the bastard door then" he said and the man fumbled with the keys to open it, getting the wrong one twice before he finally managed the task. 

Alfie could see the slender figure she cut a few rows back. In fact the whole room around her blurred to insignificance and all he could see were her chestnut waves, half plaited with a crystal encrusted broach pinning them to the back of her head.   
She was facing the other way and he was glad because he was sure his legs would have buckled and given out beneath him if he had to look into her brown eyes as he walked towards her. He wasn't entirely sure they wouldn't do that regardless, but he kept his eyes on her as they released his chain and signalled for him to take his seat. 

He reached the table and thought about touching her on the shoulder as he approached, to let her know he was there, prepare her for the locking of their eyes but he didn't want to startle her either so he simply rounded the desk and heaved himself into the chair opposite her. 

Their eyes did indeed lock. And then hers filled with the tears he hadn't been able to release since he was a child. 

"Alfie...." she said, looking at his features with a look he couldn't fathom. It looked like love and pity and desire all mixed together. It didn't look like the hatred he had expected, the look of unrecognition or disgust. It was the same look she gave him the first time she saw him injured on his doorstep, the time she washed his wounds with cotton wool and let him take her virginity before confessing her love with her head on his chest and her body naked and soft in his bed.

A single tear fell before he could do much at all about it. It trickled from the corner of one eye, the one that wasn't as swollen as the other one and he swiped at it as fast as he could. Any fucker saw him cry like a pansy in here and he was done for.   
It was a tear of relief though, and a rush of love. 

"Sweetie.... I..."

"No Alfie." She stopped him. 

"Don't you dare say you're sorry". 

They stared at each other and he reached his hands across to hold hers, clasping them and squeezing at her tiny fists encased in his own. To touch her was heaven from his front row seat in hell. 

"No touching" came the sound of a guard six feet away in the corner. The Same guard probably saw him fucking cry as well. He released his hands and gave her a small roll of the eyes as best he could manage with his eyelids hanging low. 

"You look terrible" she said quietly, scanning his face and arms that were covered in bruises, gashes and scrapes. 

"Cheers Love" he attempted to chuckle. A tiny sound came out instead before he choked it back down. 

"I gots to say what I gots to say ok?"   
She shook her head, she didn't know if she was prepared to hear it. Seeing him in this helpless condition, his face half unrecognisable from swelling was breaking her heart into a million shattered pieces. If your heart breaks in two it can heal, you can find the ridges, match them up and fix yourself. If it shattered it was unfixable .. the pieces were so tiny they got lost, and she indeed felt so lost in this moment, she didn't know how to repair all of this, it was unfixable. It felt like it was. Like love wasn't enough with your heart shattered.

"Cos if you don't know.. then ya don't fuckin know do ya?" He said. 

She shook her head again in reply, mute now, unable to even form an answer. 

"And you have to know sweetie. I need you to know." He nodded at her.

"I already know Alfie. I don't need you to tell me, it's allover your face. It's in every memory we've got together ... I know you didn't do it" she whispered. 

Alfie was blown away. Utterly. So much so that he couldn't say anything for long moments and he thought the water from his eyes might escape like a rat from a faulty trap again. 

Fuck. He didn't deserve this woman. But she didn't know enough yet. It wasn't that easy.

"I knew she was pregnant. Pregnant to me" he said finally. 

Cora released a breath and stared down at his nervously fidgeting hands. The crown tattoo was dark and symbollic of his past, stamped on his hand like a badge of honour.. or dishonour. And she focused on it as he continued. 

"I was figuring the best way to deal with it... I ... I didn't think it was best that you knew. Because if you knew you would think less of me and you would've had to deal with my mess. You might not have wanted the responsibility.. we were complicated enough...I was trying to make it go away so I didn't lose you" he rambled fast paced and half incoherent. 

"You don't keep things from the people you love Alfie" she said still keeping her gaze fixed on his hands. He had dried blood and dirt under every one of his nails, she noted. Even the permanently disfigured pinky. It was in all of his weathered lines too. He needed to wash them. 

"You do if you're scared to death of losing them Cora.. you do, you act desperately and out of character." He said.

"Who was she to you, did you love her?" She asked like a bolt from the blue.

"Fuck if I loved her woman." He said instantly. "I ain't ever loved anyone til I met you and that's the Gods honest truth. Even my own mother! I've never been shown how to love." 

Cora was tearing up again.

"It's never been given to me, I've never been a witness to it and I sure as hell haven't beguiled it to anyone .. not ever Cora, I've lived a loveless life. Right up until the day I met you." 

She was definitely tearing up again, silent tears rolling in glistening droplets onto the stained wooden desk they sat at. 

"We haven't got much time, I need to explain, I don't want you wondering things" he said as she sniffed and watched his hands continuously. He thought about dropping them out of sight so she would bloody look at him but he had to be quick now. He was going to fall apart on the spot before they called time and she left him. 

"I used her for years. Yeah... used. I used her for her services because I didn't have the time or desire for anything more." He started. 

"It was easy and half-satisfying and it kept me off the whisky for a couple of nights a week after the war. A man's a man Cora and I know you ain't naive enough to think he doesn't need a woman's touch." She nodded... her eyes watching his fingers that laid flat and still now. He had touched her with them hands, quite a lot by the sounds of it. 

"I helped her with money, I helped her with security and I helped her with repairs and business in that knocking shop in the posh part of town. I never had no idea it was your father's" 

"He didn't know it was a whore house Alfie.. he's devastated by all this." She sniffed.

Alfie laughed animatedly and she finally looked up into his eyes again.

"He fucking knew alright sweetie.. it was his business, your old man is nothing more than a pimp". 

"No he isn't Alfie, he.... I ... I know what I know. He wouldn't do that, he's horrified."

"Baby even I didn't know. But now I do, and I would never lie to you. I have kept things from you regarding her but I've never lied to you, and this I wouldn't lie about, I would have nothing to gain from doing so. I have people who can confirm it for me... there wasn't just the one whore, baby, there were plenty, it was a business and he was their boss" 

"But why would he lie to me?" 

"He told you I killed the woman I presume?" 

She nodded. 

"A lie. And that I killed the baby she was supposedly carrying?" 

Another nod. 

"Another lie. And yet you still don't believe that it's true? You believe me over him dont you?" He said, hopefully now. 

"Well at first I didn't know Alfie" she said guiltily, the tips of her ears reddening at her revelation. His stomach dropped.

"I didn't see any other explanation from what he told me. He's my father I've no less reason to believe him than I have to believe you" she said, trying to explain. His eyes were killing her. They were distraught, cloudy and grey. 

"He's lied to you about it all Cora. He's lied to save his own skin. You knew he wanted me gone. He didn't want us together he hates me.. he didn't want his daughter with a man like me. Sometimes I don't even blame him for that either."

She was shaking her head as she realised his direction, a look of horror and more disbelief on her face.

"She wasn't pregnant" he said. 

"She was.. he told me.... YOU just told me she was. I'm so confused Alfie I can't take much more of this mindless torture. Stop doing this ... I can't hear it."

A beep sounded. The five minute signal. 

Five minutes to convince her. 

"They've checked her, no child, no sign that a child ever been there.  
And I swear I went there that day because I was being blackmailed, they were threatening to tell you about the baby, the baby that didn't exist. She wrote the letters by her own hand but she wasn't behind them Cora, he was .. your father. Your father didn't want us together. He killed her so that you wouldn't be with me. He killed her to ruin me. To ruin us and what we had."

"He wouldn't do that!!!" She shouted, silencing him and making heads raise up around them. The guard gave a small smirk at the sight of the feared gangster being shouted at by a lady. 

"Calm down sweetie please. Think about it. You know me, you know my nature. How well do you know your father?" 

She didn't reply for a few moments. 

"Alfie when was the last time you laid with that woman?" 

"What?" He asked, flabbergasted by her sudden shift in direction. 

"When was the last time you made love to her? Was it after you met me? After we ... you know... after you made love to me?" she said, turning red and checking to see no one was looking or listening freely. When she looked back she focused once more on his hands. Those hands that had touched her where no one ever had.

He thought long and hard. At first he thought about when it actually was, and then he thought about how to deliver it to her without her slapping his face.   
But he was right when he said he ain't ever lied to her. And he wasn't about to start now. 

"The night in the pub, the night you .. ummmm" he shifted in his seat uncomfortably. 

She stared at his hands. 

"The night you kissed me in the street." He said quietly before closing his eyes so he didn't have to see the disappointment on her face. 

Cora felt sick.   
That night she risked everything to give into her desire for him, to seal their chemistry, to tell him that she wanted him. He had pushed her away, made her feel small and sent her away in a cab. Then he had gone to another woman.   
A prostitute no less, a "lady" of the night. And he must've emptied his seed to even believe that she could be pregnant. He could've had her yet he wanted the dirty one. She felt so inferior and stupid.

It hurt probably more in that moment than it did when she was told he had killed someone.   
There was too much anguish in her mind over her father and now this that she just couldn't think straight so she kept probing.

"Did you ever go back after that? When we went on the date, when we spent time together in your office ... did you ever see her after seeing me?" She asked. At that point when her and Alfie had been falling for each other she couldn't have ever imagined being with another man. Maybe he didn't love her the same.

Alfie didn't know why she was twisting the knife. 

What good would it do to tell her about the time after their date at the cove.. that he went to see if Rosa was available instead because he didn't want to endanger Cora with the Peaky Blinders.   
But he just couldn't lie to her. He needed to tell her everything so that she could make up her mind on the true version of him. All his mistakes and all of his fuck ups, and he had fucked up a lot with her, but then again the course of true love never did run smooth. 

"Just once. Right after the cove. The night I took a pounding from the peakys and felt sorry for myself because I wanted you. I got threatened with your safety and until I knew how to play that I knew I couldn't have you. I needed relief Cora, that's all it was I swear. Things were getting on top of me."

Cora stood up. "Oh I've no doubt that she did Alfie" she said harshly. 

"I didn't even lay with her then. I don't mean it like that, she weren't even there"

"You would've though." She replied. He couldn't deny that so he stayed silent as she looked down on him.

"Would you have gone to her forever? Relief when I wasn't giving you it? Whenever we fought or whenever you were threatened with my safety? Would you have sought solace from someone else because I couldn't provide that and she could Alfie?"

"Cora no! Don't even think that... sweetie sit down!!" 

The bell signalled the end of their time together, and as Alfie's voice got stuck in his throat again, Cora left without looking back at the broken man behind her. 

"CORA!!!" he shouted after her as she neared the door. 

She didn't look back.


	37. Chapter 37

He saw Tommy Shelby first, flanked by his brothers Arthur and John.   
Bennet brought along Rimington and Little Ollie but what protection those two fuckers would bring him was by the by. Alfie's name itself usually gave the protection, although he doubted its significance when he was sitting in a cell yielding to her majesty's prison service.   
This was the pikey Birmingham scum and he wouldn't normally trust them as far as he could throw them but what choice did they have? ... they had a common interest:   
Take John Limbert down. 

"Did you know about the knocking shops?" Bennet asked Tommy. 

There was a pause. 

"Yeah we knew" he said in his thick Birmingham slur. 

"We used a few over the years when we were in town. If you remember we were once using Limbert for his docks and that came as part of the deal he offered us.   
In all fairness Alfie should've sniffed that out a long time back, right under his nose it was, he missed a viable business opportunity."

"Alfie don't want that opportunity mate" Bennet snapped at him.   
"Why he never bothered to find out who held them... He ain't the type of man to sell women like pieces of meat, you know what I mean?" 

"Nahhh... Nahh but hell use 'em like it. And when he knocks them up he just gets rid don't he?" Arthur Shelby uttered. 

There was a slam of fists on the table as Bennet pointed his finger across in Arthur's direction. This one was always the little livewire, but he only weighed about ten stone wet through and so he had taken up boxing to back up his mouth. Kid thought he was billy big bollocks now.

"Now you fackinnn listen here! Alfie weren't the mad hatter what dunnit okay? That's the whole point in this" he gestured wildly at the space between them.   
"That's why we're here. Alfie needs your help. This is the key to Limbert. We take him down and free Alfie, we get the docks and you get the shops. And that fat old wanker gets the ground beneath us."

Tommy looked at his brother John and back to Bennet, flanked by Rimington the driver and notably missing the big Jewish force of nature that usually got shit done. He liked Alfie, they had a relationship where they helped one another out whilst still pretending to hate the very ground each other walked on. But with Alfie you always got fair, he had never ripped them off, not to their knowledge anyhow and he was always good on his word, and so he felt an obligation to his London connections right now. He had no doubt in his mind that Alfie would get out regardless and that he would take Limbert down with or without their help the moment he did. With Limbert gone Alfie would sell the whore houses to someone else and they would miss out on a goldmine.   
Sabini would be on it all like a fly on shit too, but that Italian cunt had seen his day just like Limbert had. It was time for the solomons and the shelbys to run roost now. 

"I want 20% of the Docks too" Tommy answered finally. Thinking that he might as well try and up the ante. 

Bennet frowned. Alfie told him this would happen. Greedy gypsies... why settle with a tent when you can get a stake in the caravan. 

"That's not up for discussion" Bennet answered. "The docks ain't shared, you can't share em... its not practical" 

"20%" Tommy said adamantly. 

There was a loud drawn out sigh from the other side of the table. "15" Bennet answered. Alfie had told him he could go up to 25 but he wanted to do his boss proud. 

Tommy sighed back. "Done."

The men spat into their palms and clapped them in a handshake to seal the agreement. It would be drawn up back at the office and sent up to them along with the whore houses when Alfie was a free man and Limbert was a dead one.

"Now let's talk about Limbert... the dead man walking" Arthur Shelby said, rubbing his hands together with glee before cracking his knuckles.

*****

John Limbert sat in his dock offices with a double brandy and a cheese sandwich.   
He was in mighty good spirits and had even read the newspaper considering the front pages were littered with pictures of Alfie Solomons and his crime.   
He had done a round up that very morning of every whore he had working for him at the time of Rosaleigh Pilkington.   
They were all paid a lump sum of money, and threatened within an inch of their lives that if they talked to old bill, peaky blinders, Jewish cockneys or indeed any other person on the planet then they were dead. The girls didn't understand much of what they had been told. Just that Alfie Solomons had killed Rosaleigh because she was pregnant and that they weren't to give out any details on Rosaleighs life, or her relationship with himself. 

Nancy Smith was one girl who found the whole thing very strange. Granted the last time anyone saw Mr Solomons he was beating down doors and smashing windows to get at Rosaleigh due to the baby news. But when Alfie had left that day Rosa was distraught, she told Nancy that he didn't love her but she loved him. And that's when she also told Nancy that she wasn't really pregnant at all. That John Limbert had made her say that to ruin Alfie's businesses and new relationship with his daughter.

She had even seen the letters that Alfie had sent Rosa saying he would pay to send her to America for a better life. Although now she couldn't find the letters in question and suspected Limbert had burnt them sharpish, like much of her other personal things.  
Before she packed her bags, she mentioned what she knew to old Harold. She didn't know what good it would do to get involved in the whole fiasco, not now that Rosa was dead and buried. She didn't wanna end up with the same fate for snitching on Limbert, so she told the old man to ease her conscience and then she left town.

Harold had known Rosa since she was a nipper and was more like a father to her than a business partner. He also knew Alfie would never have dunnit. And he knew Limbert would've. He also knew about Cora being the catalyst of it all and now he even knew about the blackmail letters that young Nancy had told him about. Before he even got the chance to meet with the Solomons camp or the old bill though, he was six feet under in a grave dug by John Limbert. 

Bring Bring. 

"Hello. Limbert speaking" 

"Hello Darling, what time should I expect you this evening?" Mrs Alma Limbert asked her husband down the line.

"Well let me think, I expect I shall be in residence about six of the evening my love, have you Coras room ready?" He answered.

"Yes of course, I've had the maids preparing it all day, just how she likes it, and I've removed the phone lines from the rooms like you asked, just the one in ours now" she said.  
"Is she back for good then John? Because I know a lovely man from the village printing office, we could set her up with him she's getting awfully old to be wasting opportunities for marriage. She's child-bearing age." 

John sighed and rubbed at his temples. He didn't want to talk about Cora and her marriage prospects right now. Not least when she'd been ruined by a dirty Jewish prick and bore his ring. Of course he had kept his wife in the dark about all of this as usual, and he was really hoping he had intervened before she bore his seed too. Right now however, he was just glad that she had agreed that morning to leave the city and return home.

"Indeed, yes she's back for good. See you at six." He said ending the call. He could do without a visit home this evening, having lots of loose ends to tie up in the city including getting sabini on side. He knew Alfie would've gone to the peakys so he had no choice but to join forces with Alfie's other nemesis in London. He also needed to secure his docks and houses and visit a certain Mr Solomons, however that would have to wait, he needed Cora as far away from that man as he could get her and had a month in France planned under the pretence of a summer holiday whilst he disposed of the kike himself.

*******  
Alfie was looking at the dank grey/green ceiling above him, his hands clasped on his stomach which was growling in protest at its hunger.   
There was a tray in the corner that held his lunch but instead of prison issue stew - the cunts had plated him pork chops and crab sticks on purpose - both unkosher shite that he wouldn't touch with his big toe. So he would starve. Lord knows he could do with losing a few pounds round his middle anyhow.   
He really needed a wash as well, but of course the basin in his cell was out of order and each time he asked for it repairing he was promised it would be done that same afternoon, four having passed since then. 

All this was insignificant though, what did it all matter, Cora hated him.   
He thought that she would, he was expecting it but now it was confirmed it hurt more than he ever thought possible. 

He knew she was a Bairn in comparison to him, it had put him off her at first for that very reason. She had been young, inexperienced and innocent but it wasn't a force he could overcome once he got to know her in his office. He'd felt more alive and fulfilled than at any previous point in his shitty life and once that feeling overcomes you, going back to your old life was devastating. Without her in it, he had no life anymore. He didn't care about any of it, the bakery, the docks, the races. What was it all without her on his lap in their kitchen after a long day dealing with it all. 

He had imagined a life where their children would have a playroom and a pet Alsatian, and they would take holidays by the lake up north together as a family, taking the dog for long walks in the woods. The family life he didn't ever have, was just within reach before it was cruelly snatched away. Women were a weakness, people were right but it was a welcomed one and that he didn't expect. He felt weak, he did. But what use was he to anyone at all if he moped in a cell and let Limbert rape his arse for all he had. 

Bennet told him Cora had moved back to the country manor she came from, which had been another stab to his heart. It was so punctured at the minute it was in danger of bleeding out.  
He knew she didn't mean to cause him pain, she was just young and didn't know how to deal with her emotions over all of this.   
To be posh, rich and young, a carefree life on the horizon, to suddenly having to deal with deciding if your father was a cold blooded killer, or your partner was. Whilst each one told you it was the other. He fucking hated that cunt for doing this to her, it was proved to him that this man didn't have an ounce of love for his daughter if he could put her through this to stop her marrying him. He would've just walked away, if he knew she would have to be tortured so as a result of him asking. Or he would've bumped John off already. That option was the best.

He had sent her another visiting order to barbury house but of course she wasn't there to receive it now. 

The peakys were having trouble pinning down Limbert with talks of him being in France, old Harold was a key witness and yet was seemingly MIA and the whores weren't talking. The trap was closing because his trial was one week away. If he was found guilty, it was life imprisonment with no re-trial or appeal. 

He had one week to get out. Or Cora really was gone forever.

That afternoon, he was pulled from his cell for a visit. Bennet had already been today, as had his mother who had given him a bollocking like he was still seven years old and had stolen the money she sent him to the shop for milk with. Never too old for a scalding from the mother it seemed. 

He wasn't expecting anyone else but thought there must be some developments on the outside. When the guard who no longer dared to goad him told him it was a Limbert his heart hammered its usual beat at the thought of seeing his woman. Because even if she said she wasn't his woman, she was and she would forever be that now. She had come back ... he knew it. He fucking knew she would... she couldn't be without him either like he couldn't be without her. 

However when he entered the station, her father's smug fucking face was staring back at him with a crooked smile on it's fat features.


	38. Chapter 38

Alfie halted on the spot and the guard behind him stumbled into the wide span of his back knocking him forwards, his adrenaline pumping in his ears.

_What the fuck was that traitorous prick doing here?_

His eyes met Limberts across the crowded room as he was shoved and cursed at by the guard to move forward. He didn't though, he didn't budge, he stood frozen to the spot, his arms still encased in the cold metal hand restraints and chain and his eyes like black death staring straight into the face of the man who had caused his downfall. A blanket of white hot rage fell down over his eyes, combined with a great surge of hatred that flooded his very veins, overwhelming his senses. 

"I ain't fucking seeing that cunt" Alfie said defiantly and very loudly, ensuring he could be heard in every corner of the room. John narrowed his eyes.

"If I sit anywhere near that fat old bastard, I swear I'm gonna cut him from his balls right round to his back!!" He continued, as all heads in the confined space turned to face them at the echoing sound of commotion.  
He saw John smirking in retaliation to his threat and he saw red. A square of taunting waving material. A red flag to a bull. 

He dragged the chain from the hand of the authority holding it before he realised his motive and ran forward with all the speed he could muster, his hands still cuffed in front of him. When he reached his destination he flung himself sideways over the top of the desk at the man behind it, ensuring he used his body as a force field, hitting him full throttle in the shoulder and knocking him out of his seat. 

On the ground he jumped on top of him, he was red faced, sweating profusely and the sounds of his breathing were exaggerated and laboured, but he then used the only body part he had free whilst the guards acted quickly and began to pull at his legs and arms. He repeatedly bashed his own head into the man's face and by the time he had finished, Limbert was a blood bath sprawled on the floor whilst Alfie had it smeared allover his face, spitting it from his own mouth. 

John made an almighty fuss when Alfie was finally dragged off of him.  
"Do something, do SOMEthing , cage that fucking animal .. this is assault. Bare knuckle assault." He shouted to nobody in particular. Nobody gave a fuck either on account of Alfie turning his white hot rage onto each and every one of them. He began to swing the chain in all directions, his eyes wild and his bottom lip shaking with tremendous energy. Energy he forgot he had in him. His beard was matted with the blood of his enemy and everyone sensibly backed away from his onslaught.

"Fackin c'mon then!! Cage me! I am an animal! And any of you cunts come near me il swing this metal off the back of yer noggins!... GET ME MY BARRISTER..... GET HIM NAWWWWWW!" Alfie screamed. 

Seeing Limbert was the catalyst he needed to revive his old self, for he was Alfie fucking Solomons, relentless and brutal gangster baker of Camden. He was nobody's fucking bitch. 

As the guards scrambled for back up, and the place began to lock down, sirens sounding and the flash of a red warning light, Alfie turned his attention back to Limbert, shell shocked and pathetic in front of him.  
The panic across his face at Alfie's violence was apparent, the fact that he was uncontrollable even in a setting as such, and unstable enough to probably take his head off in front of everyone, made him turn on his heel and make a break for the door. 

Alfie laughed a maddening laugh after him "OH I'LL SEE YOU SOON MATE!!!" Alfie shouted towards the exit he was scrambling for. _very fucking soon when he cut his throat like a lamb for shechita sacrifice_ he thought to himself as he was eventually dragged by a team of guards, chained and muzzled to the confines of a lockdown cell. 

*  
Cora was playing classical music in the bedroom she had the privileged pleasure of growing up in.  
She wouldn't normally listen to Mozart but it seemed to be calming her, whereas her usual country music seemed to make her solemn now. She could only remember Alfie pretending he hated the stuff, tutting when she would play it quietly in the office, and then noticing him tapping his foot to its beat within ten minutes.  
Would she ever find joy in anything she used to do again?  
She popped a lemon sherbet sweet into her mouth and decided that was a no, not yet anyway, because instead of lemon and sherbet all she could taste was sickening bile. _She just wanted to be back in his bedchamber. Back in his arms._

The first two nights at home she had not slept a wink, but laid awake with the moonlight pouring through the bay window, illuminating her guilt.  
She missed him and felt bereft without him but her emotions were still like a whirlpool and she couldn't for the life in her calm the storm of them.  
Her decision to walk out on Alfie had been on a whim. A whim she now regretted. 

It was ironic that Alfie was the one in a prison but she felt locked up, back in the confines of her old life she felt suffocated already. It was such a waste of existence to spend time in this mundane shackled princess life. She had no interest sitting in the drawing room reciting poetry with her mother or drawing up warm baths to lie in them for endless hours wallowing in her turmoil. And she had no one to talk to about any of it, since her mother nor sisters knew Alfie existed, and her father was nowhere to be seen again. Her old friend Annie was currently away with her husband and so she had resorted to talking to Felicity the poodle to try and make sense of her life back in London, where she felt like she had fallen down a rabbit hole into chaos but realised it was all she had ever craved.

"He can't of loved her because if he had then he would've been with her wouldn't he?" She said to the dog as it looked back at her blankly, watching her every move as she changed into her nightgown.  
Pulling back the comforters she hugged her knees beneath them and chewed on her lip. Even that reminded her of him, he used to be the one doing that. Nibbling on the bottom one while his tongue intermittently flicked the roof of her mouth. It was like he loved to explore her mouth with his own for hours, telling her over and over that he had never kissed anyone intimately on the mouth, that he hadn't wanted to. So why could she picture him now with his tongue down the throat of a prostitute.  
It said a lot that Cora could believe Alfie wasn't a killer, but she could believe he was emotionally involved with that woman when he said that he hadn't been.  
He said he hadn't loved anyone ever but her so why was she having trouble believing that statement? What more did he have to prove.  
She was jealous, pure and simple. That this woman had known him that way, had had his hands allover her naked flesh and felt the heat of his broad shoulders on top of her whilst he parted her legs and made love to her.  
She sighed and laid vertical, pulling the covers over head to block everything out, but the attempt was feeble because all she could see was him. 

_I love you sweetie...._

_I didn't know what love was til I met you..._

She drifted off with his voice echoing throughout her tortured mind. 

*

The next morning she had breakfast served to her on a silver tray with bone China dishes. She stirred the porridge slowly rather than eating it, because her gut was still playing havoc. 

"Dont play with your food Cora, honestly it's like you are still ten years old" her mother chastised. 

"Oh how i wish I was mama, oh how I wish I was" 

"Don't be so ridiculous girl, I don't know what the matter is but you won't find a husband with a face like a slapped bottom, and I have plans for that" 

Cora rolled her eyes. "Oh?" She asked, not really caring about the reply. 

"Yes ... my friend Bertha Collins has a son about your age, looking to take a wife he is, he works in print, not rich by any means but your father could help with that." Alma nodded to herself.  
"He's a lovely looking man, his name is Alfred. They call him Alfie for short I think." She finished, taking a sip of orange juice. 

"Please excuse me" Cora mumbled as she covered her mouth with a napkin and rose from the table. Her spoon clattered against the silver tray and her mum possessed a face of concern as her daughter ran from the room wretching. 

In the nearest bathroom, Cora threw her guts up into the basin of the toilet.  
She hadn't eaten anything the previous night and the porridge had barely been consumed at more than a mouthful yet she wretched-a-plenty. When nothing came out she still wretched, loud and forceful leant on her knees against the carpet.  
_This would never do_ she thought. She could simply not live this way, live without him, live with this knot of overwhelming pain that made her sick to her stomach.  
She didn't know who had killed the woman. Either Alfie was lying to her or her father was but she didn't want to believe either option and she had to find out. She had to go back.  
If Alfie was free and innocent, she could try to look past the issues of other women and seedy pregnancies. She would have to if she wanted to be his wife, and God help her she still did.  
She suddenly realised the enormity of what she had done. She had left him. She had deserted and let him down at a time when he needed her love the most.  
It occurred to her that they both always chose the flight instead of fight method to deal with the feelings they had for one another. Why couldn't they fight for each other? Why When things got tough did they flee? He had done it when she kissed him, and he had done it when her safety was threatened. She had done it when he was declared a killer, and again when he told her of the other woman. But deep down, she realised, both of them knew they had to fight. There was no running from this. They had to be together, the pull was too great, the magnetism too strong, the fire too far ablaze to ever be diminished. Until this point they had just been drifting aimlessly, waiting for the other half of them, and now they had each other they would never have to feel alone again, they just had to stop running from it.  
Cora made the decision as she wiped her mouth and washed her hands with the rose scented soap.  
She re-packed her bags and ordered a carriage to the station before the breakfast dishes were even cleared. She was going back for answers.


	39. Chapter 39

Alfie was being bailed out. His trial was set for four days time and the blinders had provided currency and hired help in order to get his feet back on the Camden cobbles until D-Day.  
He had to report to the courthouse every morning until then and also find a way to pay the judges the hefty sum he had dangled in front of them in order to make the right decision on his temporary release. It was custom for prisoners to be bailed before a trial but the suspected crime of homocide left most requests mute. Coupled with his bad behaviour inside it should have ensured the decision was refused but post war Britain was still barely keeping their heads afloat of the economy and bribes were welcomed greedily. The men in the white wigs listened to his plea, nodded at the barristers talk of set up and revenge plots and took the envelope full of brass before stamping his release form. 

What was a few days release when he was going to be put away for a very very long time?, was their way of thinking. Dangle the Jew a carrot. Let him have his four days. 

*

Bennet was busy setting up plans for the release. He had scheduled a meeting with a whore he had managed to track down, one who had fled to Plymouth called Nancy Smith, who apparently had information to warrant an arrest on Limbert and leads that could clear Alfie's name.

Countless times he had tried over the past few weeks to get the prozzies to talk, he had used both threats of barbaric violence and fruitful bribery but never had they so much as uttered a word that wasn't a curse to fuck off and be gone, spat in his direction. That was until he had accosted the little redhead at the market, she had been so flustered that she had let slip it was Nancy he should be talking to, in order for him to leave her the hell alone. She soon realised her mistake when Bennet had one of his hefty associates pinning her against a back alley threatening to spread her legs and fuck her between them with a crow bar.  
He would never have let the man do that, but she didn't need to know the threat was empty. He needed his information, Alfie needed it, and quickly for Christ's sake.

She had given them an address for Nancy and Bennet had sent a telegram first class. Five days later he received one back asking for money, and giving him a phone number to contact her. It resulted in a sent cheque with the promise of more and a scheduled meet by the courthouse. He promised her protection from Limbert and a set up for the future courtesy of Alfie's fortune. 

He picked Alfie Solomons up from the prison and shook his head at the sorry sight of his boss. The man was skinnier than he had seen him since the trenches, and just as hauntingly harrow looking, weary and old.  
But he had a look on his face that meant business and when Alfie had that look, it meant someone was going to suffer, it meant someone was going to die. That fire behind his black eyes was still a flicker.

Of course the Peaky Blinders would be joining them in the pursuit and disposal of Limbert later that day, but first they had to meet with the whore, retrieve her information, testify that proof and get Limbert in a position to be wiped the fuck out. They had a lot to do. 

"Benny" Alfie nodded by way of greeting, donned in his old clothes that hung off his gaunt and wiry frame now. 

"Alfie... we have to be there in an hour mate" 

"Get going" he said to the driver who promptly set off across the cobbles as Alfie heaved himself wearily into the seat. 

"She answer you yet?" Alfie asked Arthur as they began the journey to the courthouse. 

"Who? The whore?" He replied.

"No you damn fuck, Cora. Has she answered the telegrams, the stamped mail, the flowers, the calls, anything?" 

Bennet was hesitantly silent, wondering how best to word his answer. It would do nobody any good to set them off track at this very moment, their time was limited and if Alfie knew the truth about Cora's disappearance he would go on a mad rampage to track her down. It was best he thought her safe at home until the deeds were done.

"Not yet Alfie but she may do yet. She may do yet." He said his lips pursed to contain his lies. 

Alfie sighed wearily. "And you have a tail on her? Someone watching her at home?" He asked again, just to be sure. He needed to know she was safe because her father was far from it.

Bennet nodded. "Yes sir." 

The truth was, the tail had lost Cora in the bustle of the city she had returned to two days previously. Nobody knew why she had come back and where she had gone. She hadn't been seen at the office docks, Barbury House, or indeed Alfie's Addresses. She was missing. 

*

A sleepy Cora jumped with a start and woke herself up. She was in the locked office of Alfie's bakery and it took her a few seconds to adjust to her surroundings and catch her bearings again.  
She didn't know how long she had slept with her head in her arms on the desk, positioned in Alfie's chair but her neck hurt now from the strain of it.  
The half empty rum bottle stood tauntingly at the side of the papers she had been milling through, the glass tumbler with the lipstick marks drained at the side of it. She had never been in a position to drink herself stupid but last night she felt like it was a necessary position to be, if only to take the sickness away.  
She had arrived back in London and gone straight to the Bakery, letting herself in through the concealment to the garage at the back. The workers were long gone for the evening and she used her key to enter and went straight to Alfie's office. She didn't know if anyone would be stationed there in his absence but the place looked dusty and unused, smelling of foist and old paper. The mail chute was full, and ever the diligent secretary she had started by opening a few of the received to see if any urgent business needed attending to, this having been her old duty after all and still her engrained behaviour.

She had sunk the rum from Alfie's cabinet as she opened them, the words becoming more blurred as she hiccuped in the low light of the oil lamp. she found Alfie's half moon spectacles on their competent chain in a drawer and proceeded to wear them and laugh at how he must be blind as a bat because she couldn't see straight, quickly realising it was probably the white, potent rum that blurred her vision and not the spectacles entirely. 

He was behind on his accounts for the distillery mechanisms, needing four of the pumps fixed and had a red letter for non-delivery payment of parts and supplies. Not to mention the complaints letters piled high from unsatisfied customers at the breweries, and bakeries across the entire city and beyond. It looked like no one had bothered to take care of his dealings at all, and she realised they probably didn't matter to anyone when he was locked in stone box waiting to be sentenced. 

She looked at the clock and wondered why the bakery workers weren't piling in, and why nobody came to into the office to start the working day, but since there were no windows in this stuffy place she wondered if the clock had perhaps stopped and so she left the office to look outside. 

She could hear a tap dripping as she wandered past the huge iron machines, her heels tapping an echo onto the stone floor, to the entrance lobby where a window let in a glimmer of light as confirmation of the morning. Somewhere around this damn place there was a leaky tap, and the very fact that she could hear it amongst the silence spoke volumes, the bakery was deserted. It was a Tuesday and it was 10am. Alfie had shut up shop, and that wasn't a good sign.  
She wondered back to the office, her head pounding now from the aftermath of the alcohol she had consumed last night and picked up the phone to call herself a cab. She planned on going back to her uncles address where she intended on talking to her father about this whole sordid mess in hope of finding some truth.  
As the dialling tone echoed in her ear she noticed an envelope that wasn't quite like the rest of the ones in the pile. It was small, with a feminine scrawl across the front, and the writing was smudged as though someone couldn't wait for it to dry before posting it.  
It was stamp dated Tuesday November 15th,the very day that her world was torn apart and Alfie was taken away and portrayed as a brutal woman killer. She hesitated upon opening the envelope, turning it over and back again in her dainty hands. It looked like personal mail and she didn't want to pry as it could be from an ex lover, or even one of his relatives. If Alfie was working beside her as he once had, she would simply have passed it over for him to open that one himself but since he had ended up arrested she supposed that was impossible to say the least. 

So she opened it.

She read slowly, and she read carefully. The pink post alcohol flush draining line by line from her face as the churning of her stomach for the past week returned with a vengeance and she had to dip her head under the desk into the waste paper basket to deposit the vomit. 

"Hello? ..... Hello? .....Cab service ? .....Is anyone there?" came a voice from the receiver that dangled from the very desk she wretched beneath.


	40. Chapter 40

Limbert was pacing the hardwood floor at his brothers house in Camden and pinching the bridge of his nose, his nerves were shot and he wasn't entirely sure he wasn't in the midst of a heart attack in the very spot where he paced. 

Cora had left the family home and seemingly disappeared into the city, and he had searched high and low the entire day and previous night but hadn't made one ounce of progress.   
Alfie's house was empty, he knew because he had someone break in.   
The bakery seemed to be just as abandoned and every place or situation he thought of all ended as null and void leads.   
The prison hadn't had any requests or visits to see the prisoner, there was no sign of anything at Barbury house and the morgue hadn't turned up an angelic body either. So where the fucking hell was she? 

By the morning he had heard of Alfie's release, and the jigsaw seemed to slot together in his mind that the Jewish pig had somehow got to Cora despite his interventions and persuaded her to meet him. He was waiting on his carriage to take him on Alfie's tail.   
Since the Jews release an hour earlier he was seemingly heading for the courthouse and Limbert's mark over that side of London said a woman had arrived just before him and was waiting for someone. 

At first he presumed it was Cora and told the mark to bundle her into the back of his car but the man protested that it was a harsh looking blonde woman, dressed darkly and shifting nervously in the shadows of the side alley awaiting an arrival.  
It was all too much for him to bear from the confines of a house and he was now on his way to the courthouse to see what was happening for himself.   
If he happened to end Alfie Solomons in the street, then so be it.   
Finding Cora would just have to wait. 

*

Alfie and Bennet finally arrived outside the courthouse, spotting Nancy and approaching her with caution. She immediately pulled Alfie by his black coat lapel down the side of the alley she waited in, her body shaking and her eyes darting frantically around the surrounding street. She knew Mr Solomons was a feared London mobster yet she had also laid underneath him while he had massaged the very breasts on her chest so she knew he acted differently with the women. He had more patience, although she was probably testing it right now.

He removed her vice-like claws from his coat and furrowed his brow, his rage simmering, threatening to spill over the very top of his temper. 

"There's a warehouse back here, abandoned, we can't do this on the street Alfie.." she rushed to state after the look on his face at being manhandled by a female in public. 

"Fackin'ell you git your hands off woman.. I just want to know what you know. I don't want a private shit-show in the back that might get busted, I need to know what you fackinnn know!" He repeated loudly, attracting the attentions of a couple walking arm and arm on the cobbles. It was starting to rain lightly and thankfully the curious people hurried on despite the commotion and the glare from Bennet who then turned back to his boss.

"Alfie, I can see the entrance, let's get off the street and get this done, we have a meeting to get to as soon as we've declared the court... remember?" Bennet pushed, looking around him, in an identical state of paranoia to the girl. 

For London had eyes in the back of its head.

Alfie begrudgingly used his cane to move the woman out of his way and begin a limp towards the entrance of the warehouse, grumbling incoherent curses towards the sky that was now throwing droplets of water in a thick stream upon their heads. 

Once inside he struggled to see as the light was minimally cracking through a mere split in the wooden planked roof and the place stunk of ammonia and wet leaves, making him crinkle his nose in disgust. 

"Get on wi'it, what you know?" He growled taking her by the forearm and watching unsympathetically with fury as she winced. 

"Alfie" Bennet warned, "be gracious, or she might not talk"

"She will talk" Alfie said, turning his murderous eyes on the woman in front of him who guiltily dropped her head.  
The woman took a deep breath and started speaking to the floor.

"Rosaleigh Pilkington was my best friend Alfie. She told me things about you that no one else knows. She told me about your affinity to lavender oil, and the way you wouldn't even give her the moistness of your lips because you didn't love her the same way that she did you." 

Alfie let go of her arm and stepped back from her, frowning at her direction.   
He looked up at Bennet who was riveted to the spot, a mass of eyes and ears as Alfie's personal laundry was well and truly aired. But he kept his patience, waiting and breathing heavily whilst he encouraged her with a nod to continue despite the irrelevance he perceived her statement to have.

"And she told me things. About her life. She told me that she was forced into working like the most of us, that she didn't want to give her body to strangers but she had little choice because she was owned."

The direction of his glare once again met hers in the dim lighting and flashed at her with sickened knowledge.

"Owned by Limbert, yeah I know that now, don't I?". He said, to remain on top, he didn't want people to think he couldn't work this shit out. Like he should've worked this shit out back then.

"Limbert owned her and he made her do things Alfie. I mean we heard the screams, and we saw the bruises. We heard what he made her do often and she hated it but she had to. Sometimes she told me she would rather die than continue to have him take her the way he did but then you came along and gave her some hope."

Alfie faltered, his chest heaving with an ache that made him sick to his stomach with regret for not realising who the man was behind the whore houses and saving someone he cared about from misery and murder at his hands. She always seemed so strong, but wasn't that a trait of his own? To seem strong even with the weight of the world on your shoulders. He had certainly never let his father see him wince when he struck him with the belt on already reddened and raw welts of skin as a young boy.   
He never let the enemy abroad see him duck or grimace when they pelted him with shrapnel and rocks from overhead bombs in the war.  
He never let Cora see the silent tears he cried in his cell when she left him. He knew you could seem strong despite the world drowning you in shite for a lifetime. 

"Rosa started writing letters. Not to anybody, not to anybody but herself, and I found them once when I had a leak in my own room and stayed in hers. It was like a diary Alfie .. about you. And about him. And about the world of differences between you both." Nancy continued quietly. 

Bennet cleared his throat breaking through the pause in her story. It painted a detailed picture that they just didn't have the time to ponder on.  
"Miss, you need to stick to the murder, begging your pardon but we have to know about the murder and then we have to leave ... " he said, checking the time on his pocket watch before shoving it back in his pocket and biting his lip in urgency, glancing back at Alfie who looked more menacing than he had ever seen him, despite his thinner frame.

Alfie waved a hand. "Go on" he said to Nancy.

"She told me that John wanted to take you down, that he had plans to take the Bakery business as it was a goldmine he wanted for himself and that sabini was set out to help him. He told Rosa that Alfie was courting his daughter against his will and that he planned to blackmail away his fortune by threatening to tell the lady about your dealings with pregnant prostitutes. He didn't want you with her, and Rosa was never pregnant.   
Limbert said he didn't just want you buried, he wanted you begging to be buried." She finished.

Alfie's nostrils flared as he listened intently. 

"She said he made her write a letter. A letter threatening to tell your woman about Rosa's baby if you didn't hand over your money. And then he was going to kill you anyway. She showed me the letter. I tried to find it afterwards but I can't... "

"That's not fucking proof!!!" Alfie screamed at her.   
"Your word on a letter that nobody can find won't free a man, this won't suffice to a Judge of law and order." He said, exasperated, his head in his hands. This was all pointless waffle, she couldn't get him out and he had heard enough. His second plan was racing through his mind. 

Kill Limbert. Get Cora. Flee London.   
Kill Limbert. Get Cora. Flee London. 

Before his death sentence of life left to rot in prison. He set out to leave the place and the woman behind. 

"No. Stop!" She shouted at the back of his head.  
"There was another letter Alfie. She wrote another letter."   
He turned to face her and narrowed his eyes. A second letter?

"She told me she was scared that Limbert might kill her soon, and that she had to somehow undo the mess he had made her create. That you told her not to write to the Bakery because that was business only, and she said this was urgent business and Limbert wouldn't trace it because he sent the blackmail to your home like you said to. He would never suspect it" The woman's eyes seemed to fill up, undoubtedly with the memories of her friend's last few days on earth. 

"So she sent it to the Bakery Alfie.. the letter will clear your name and blacken John Limbert's. That's your evidence" she finished. 

Alfie didn't stop to look back or to thank her because his mind was a fog. He took great strides towards the exit with both Nancy and Bennet stepping close behind when he heard the gunshot echo through his skull. 

For a second he stood stock still, seeing if he had been the target and wether the air would leave his lungs but it continued to flow, his heart hammering and a whooshing in his ears reverberating the sound of the shot violently around his senses  
It didn't however block out the sound of the body dropping as he turned behind him to see Nancy fall into a heap at his feet, or the sound of Bennet pulling his own pistol from his coat with a rustling of material and a shout of his name. Nor did it block out the sound of John Limberts voice as he stood with his gun pointed right at Alfie's face. 

"I've got two mottos Mr Solomons. You wanna hear em???   
Never trust a woman." He said, spitting at Nancy's lifeless body on the floor. 

"And never trust a Jew." He said as he moved his finger on the trigger.


	41. Chapter 41

Cora heard it too, the gunshot, because she was standing right outside the door to the warehouse that her father had just walked into. 

She found it strange how the sound of a shot fired and its simultaneous reverberating echo sounded like the beat of her very own heart in that moment and it took her a breath to rationalise the scenario in her mind for what it was.  
Someone had more than likely just been killed, and when the two people in there were definitely the two most important males in her life she should really have felt sheer panic.  
But she was numb, so, so numb.  
After reading that letter she was hollow, and cold and dumbfounded and she couldn't bring herself to peer around the crack of the door to see which of the two men had more than likely been annihilated, because whichever way the tides had turned the ship had indeed sailed.  
That person was dead, because the body hit the ground and it didn't get up, it had sunk like a ship and delivering herself of the news about which body it was, would only hurt her visual senses more, so she listened instead, an ear against the door jamb, a hand clasped in a soft pocket, around the cold hard steel of a trigger as she waited to see which man had been taken down. 

More than half an hour ago she had been sat clutching a letter of revelation whilst sinking every liquor bottle she could lay her hands on in Alfie's drinks cabinet, which was a revelation in itself.  
Tipsy and tearful she had thrown the glass tumbler at the wall when she had finished reading and watched as the remnants of wasted liquid flowed at a far more steadier pace than that of her tears. 

The man she thought she had known so well, was nothing but a dark silhouette of a stranger in her memories now, the words contained on the paper transforming everything she had ever experienced, saw or felt at his hands. The normality of the man changing into stone cold abnormality, a monster or a beast revealed in its entirety and she couldn't quite grasp how she didn't notice it before, but knowing deep down that love was of course, blind.

Rising from her place in Alfie's chair, Her vision swam before her very eyes and she somehow managed to adorn her coat and bonnet, fix up her lipstick without the use of a mirror and leave the office on steady but threateningly weary feet.  
She hailed a carriage to Barbury house and as she approached in the dimness of dusk, saw another one leaving at the same time. It held her father, she could see his bowler hat and grey hair at the nape of his neck and so she beckoned for the driver to continue on past her original destination. 

"Drive on please, that is my father in front. If you could follow him, I need to travel to where he is going also." She nodded.

The man stalled the engine slightly, looking back at her with a frown. 

"Don't worry sir, I have the coin" she said rattling her purse. At the sound of the clatter of what he believed to be more than ten bob and the obvious grandeur of her dress and address, he did as she said and followed the cab in front of him. 

She had taken Alfie's weapon from the top drawer of his desk and placed it deep inside the pocket of her dresscoat. She wasn't sure why. The thing would likely explode in her pocket if she wasn't careful and she was so below the level of normal sober sense, that careful was a foreign language by now, so it was probably a very bad idea.  
As the carriage slowed down she watched as her father left his transportation and walked to a man beside the courthouse entrance who pointed towards a door down a side alley. They did not see her approach as they were so consumed in their task but she was close enough that she heard the ramblings of mixed words that included "he's in there" and "Jew" and "cunt".

She paid the cab driver his fare with good advance change, and stayed put whilst she watched her father enter the building with his faithful servant in tow. She didn't want to make herself known and she hadn't quite decided what she was here for yet. The feeling that Alfie was on the other side of that stone cold wall made her breathless like she had just plunged into icy depths of ocean and couldn't get to the surface. 

After waiting to catch that breath and collect her jumbled thoughts, she followed the men down the alley, her feet nimble and light despite the amount of alcohol In her veins and as she approached the same door, she noticed nightfall was suddenly closing in all around them.  
Her body was hidden behind the steel of the door, and she heard her father's voice echo menacingly in the space in front of it. 

"And never trust a Jew" it sounded, before the gunshot thumped through her skull.

"Crack" ... followed by a crumpled thud. 

Someone with an accent shouted the name of the man she thought she had known so well before all of this, and that impounded her skull as well, just like the shot before it. 

"Alfiiiiiiiiiiie" Bennet had shouted. 

She couldn't look. She just couldn't do it. Alfie was in there. Her father was in there. There was a shot. She heard his name in warning. And now there was silence. Heavy gut-wrenching silence.

And still she stood right outside the door, her ear pressed tightly against it until finally after what felt like an eternity where she lost her breaths again and again, someone spoke a word.

"That was fackinnn biblical mate" Alfie said. She swallowed down the lump in her throat, and then released an audible gasp.  
Alfie was alive, at least for now. But her father? .....

"Never had much use for the bible though did you Solomons? What is it you Jew bastards follow? Torah is it? Sounds like another word you're used to worshipping don't it? Torah...... or Cora? My fucking Cora eh??! You kike bastard.. when she isn't yours to worship..."

So Her father was alive too. She wasn't sure how she felt about that yet. About the use of her name heavily laced with menace in a gangsters conversation, she didn't know how she felt about any of this, about the showdown on the other side of the door, about him taunting Alfie and about someone apparently being dead and how no one was making a big deal of it. 

"You know she begged me before I did it Solomons, that ginger whore" She heard her father speak again. She edged to an angle slightly and realised she could see straight through the door crack and watch them.  
That's when she finally saw Alfie, his figure leaner and his skin older looking with pallor but his face just as achingly beautiful as she remembered it. He was stood with Bennet and he looked to be unarmed, judging by the fact Bennet was stood in front of him like a human shield and her father was pointing a pistol directly between the man's eyes. 

"She always begged me. It was pathetic. Probably the reason I killed her. She was pathetic and diposable, like all women." He grumbled looking down briefly at the mass of limbs on the floor. And coincidentally like all common cockney Jewish Bakers" he laughed.

Alfie tried to get around Bennet's large frame but failed miserably due the sheer size and force of his friend and his restriction.

"What the fuck is your problem you fat pompous bastard?!!" Alfie screamed at Limbert and the ruckus caused a flock of nestled pigeons to fly off in a flap of wings and falling feathers above them.

"What do you want from me? Why did you kill'er? Why frame me? Why not just take me out. Solve all your problems. What did she ever do?" He bellowed, waving his arms behind Bennet, trying to manoeuvre him out of the way again so that Limbert had full target access to him.

Limbert laughed again, a hysterical roar that should have made his position shift but he stood stock still and didn't lose advantage on the men in front of him.  
It felt to Cora like a western. Her father had a gun on Alfie, who was unarmed and vulnerable but still unafraid.  
Bennet had a gun on her father, and her father's man had a gun on Bennet. There was a lady on the floor, the deceased, the body that had fallen, blood around her mass of blonde curls. She had been shot at point blank range on the back of the head and since she was facing Alfie when she went down, it wasn't hard for Cora to work out the perpetrator and what this all meant. 

"Because where's the fun in that, old boy? This way you get to suffer first. You get to watch yourself lose everything you've worked your weasel arse off for, bit by sorry bit." Limbert revealed loudly. 

"You see once we heard that bitch's little story about the bakery and this magic letter when we were stood outside, we made sure to send a little friend of ours to Camden Town Bakeries Solomons Ltd.  
And I'm dreadfully sorry to say that our friend has a penchant for arson, and that letter might be embers when you try get your filthy hands on it lad" he revealed, laughing once more. That means you're done for! In law and in fucking life"

Bennet reacted quickly as he pulled his trigger, the barrel facing Limbert in retaliation to the goading, but he was not quick enough for Limberts man who saw it coming and shot at Bennet as he targeted his boss, the man hitting him in the leg with the Bullet causing all three of the others to cast their eyes on him as he fell to the floor wailing out his pain.

Alfie could see Bennet's knee cap was blown off, the blood already pooling from the sodden material of his trousers and he knew he had to act quick. Bennet's shot had hit the perpetrator on the hand and he was clutching himself with the other while he looked at his injury in horror. Both the men's pistols had ended up on the ground, and Bennet's was swivelling wildly near Alfie's feet.

He knew he needed to reach for it but he couldn't because the only people left uninjured right now were him and Limbert and since the cunt had a pistol on him, he could do nothing but stare him down, his brow furrowed and his lips pressed in a hard line causing his large copper beard to jut out.

"Shoot me then." He said, calling his bluff. 

"Fucks stopping ya?" He asked when John didn't move an inch. Bennet had gone into shock on the floor and Limberts man was crumpled in a ball clutching his hand. 

"I just want you to know before I shoot you Alfie, that you have nothing, you died with nothing and that you are nothing. And that I'm gonna make sure that's engraved on your tomb.  
Your bakery is burned to the ground along with your letter of freedom, and my daughter is betrothed to a man in print who's she's going to marry in the south of France this very weekend on my orders, although she didn't take much persuasion all the same" he shrugged. 

And I also want you to know that poor Rosaleigh was calling for you when I throttled her and slit her pretty porcelain throat. That as the blood gurgled and her skin separated, the last sound to escape her split column of flesh was your name. Like she thought you could save her or something. Like she thought you wou...........

BANG. BANG. BANG.

Alfie had reached down to retrieve the revolver as Limbert continued to goad him. He knew if he was going to die in this moment then he had to go down trying, and so he knelt and reached, grabbed and cocked the trigger, pointed and pulled, as the bullet from the other man's gun hit his shoulder and pierced his skin with a harrowing sound of tearing flesh. 

In slow eerie motion, devoid of sound he thought he saw Limbert, his brains blown out around his body, falling heavily to the floor as he went down the same way himself. 

And it might have been his mind, delirious with instant blood loss but as his head lay flat against the biting cold stone of the concrete, he thought he saw a swish of expensive skirts before his eyelids flickered shut and everything in his vision turned from grainy to black.


	42. Chapter 42

They were a little too late but at least they were here. 

If Alfie lived through this then he was going to be less than impressed with their punctuality because in the cold light of day he had been rescued by a woman. By his own woman as well. And not by them. Those peaky fucks. Well at least they were here now to tidy up this whole sorry mess.

And a mess it was, because Cora Limbert had shot her own father.   
And in doing so she had saved Alfie's life undoubtedly. That was presuming he could live through a shot to the shoulder and severe blood loss but nether the less he was about to have his brains blown onto the concrete and the lady's quick thinking had ensured another man took his place. 

Bennet's vision clouded in and out but he was mostly conscious now and was able to see for the most part. His leg was mangled and bent in such peculiar fashion he contemplated they would have to remove it at thigh length once he got to the hospital. But the pain was strangely dull now, like his adrenaline had taken care of that part for now so that he could focus on the treacherous scene in front of him. 

He saw Tommy lifting her up and the possession still gripped him in his state of deliriousness, he should be lifting her up, or Alfie should, they hadn't protected her or themselves well at all and he knew it was because they were too old for this fucking business of gangstering. They should have been home tonight with feet up by the fire, food on the stove and a wife in their laps.   
Instead they were playing cowboys and Indians, bodies blown to pieces all around them, his boss half dead on the floor, and his woman- Well she would never be the same again.   
They should be Leaving this shit to the young uns. And he decided right there that when he was recovered he was out of this game to spend his time with Helena and his four boys for the rest of his days. He had seen enough bloodshed for five life times and he was done with it all.

"Cmon love, that's it" the Birmingham slur of Tommy Shelby cooed as he gently guided Coras body up from its position by the body of her father that she had been knelt at, weeping. 

"I.... I didn't mean ... I didn't mean to kill... oh Christ I've killed him, I've killed him" she started to say, her panic setting in. "My mother, what will my mother do..?"

"Now miss, it's ok, let's get you to a cab, cmon now, we need to leave here now, right now" he said hurriedly, and turning her body towards his younger brother John. 

"I never meant, he was going to... he was going to kill Alfie .. he pointed it at right at him and the words he said, I couldn't take them.... I couldn't take them, I wanted them to stop, he was talking of that poor, poor lady that he killed sir, he was tormenting Alfie, and he was about to shoot him, I had to, I had to.... "

A look crossed her face as her eyes settled on more of the bodies in the midst of the bloodbath on the ground as if realising they were there for the first time.  
Alfie's eyes were closed, and he was unmoving. Deathly still. She cupped her mouth with her hands as the weight of the scene hit her all at once.  
The man that ran for her father was missing, he was there when it happened but now he was gone, the one with the bad hand was gone, and then there was Bennet, crumpled on the ground, but awake and watching her with sorry eyes. 

"Arthur ... Arthur oh god" she said pulling away from Johns grip and rushing to his side. As Bennet looked at her, all he could concentrate on was the beautiful mauve material of her skirts as the liquid of blood soaked a river of dark red across it. She was ruining her skirts. He tried to tell her, a frown across his brow, but as he went to speak he just saw her lovely face and a beautiful glow of orange all around her, her face seeming to morph into that of his wife who had similar features and was the only woman he had ever loved and cared about, as his body gave up and his eyes shut forever. 

Cora started to wail, as she stroked the man's sweating head and then left him to crawl over to Alfie, in the same state seemingly, looking for a pulse. She fiddled with his coat lapel, his shirt tied all the way up around his neck and thanked the lord for his thick materials because hopefully it shielded the force of the blow even a little. 

He had a weak pulse, and his breathing was intermittent rasps and that was the only thing that allowed her to be taken away from the scene of it. John picked her up and carried her out into his waiting car, as she watched Tommy and Arthur Shelby heaving his lifeless body to another on its way to the hospital. 

"You've forgotten Bennet, Arthur Bennet, he needs the hospital, his leg it's, it's injured, he's in shock and the blood loss and...." she shouted to the men.

Tommy turned and gave her just about the sorriest look she had ever seen on a man. 

"He ain't gonna need that leg love. The good Lords taken him now" he answered, jumping into the drivers seat of the car that held Alfie in the back of it.

Cora sat back in her own seat and shut her eyes. Her hands automatically shifting to a position of prayer before she broke down once more in exhausted tears.   
John put his arm around her and pulled her into his shoulder for comfort whilst she sobbed onto his coat. 

"What will become of Alfie sir?" She said as the car rolled onto the cobbles.

"Hush darling it ain't important right now. We just all have to get out of here and clean this up and tomorrow we can decide what will become of us all. You rest your eyes ok, you've been through a lot, let us tidy it up, it's what Alfie would want."

She was glad of the comfort despite this man being a total stranger, for she felt so alone in the world and shocked to her core from what had just transpired.   
Her body was so feverishly exhausted that her eyes closed and took her under where she sat and barely opened when she was carried from the car and passed to her uncle on the steps of Barbury house one half of an hour later. 

 

*

She laughed at him and he tickled her tiny pink feet again with his rugged finger, hearing her emit a squeak that seemed to jolt his heart with a rush of pure love every time he heard it. 

Alfie played with his baby daughter as his wife still slept, bringing her into their bed despite how Cora said he shouldn't encourage that type of nurturing or she would end up between them every night. 

He wouldn't mind it, both his girls close to him so he could watch them sleep and bask in his contentment from the comfort of his pillow. He'd probably never leave the house again, and spend all his time gazing at the family him and Cora had created in the middle of destructive chaos. A Rose developed from a thorn bush. And her name would be rose .... because Rosa would've liked the sentiment and she would know that Alfie wouldn't ever forget her and what she stood for in his life. 

It was a nice picture, a nice thought and a nice dream that he didn't want to rise from and when he heard his name over and over and felt the jostle of his legs being moved he ignored it for as long as he was able.   
Eventually his eyelids lifted groggily and his vision increasingly lost its blurred state as he squinted in the bright lights of a hospital ward.   
He saw that he was bandaged with his arm in a sling and the pain was incredibly severe when he tried to move his body even but an inch and so he remained still after the third try. 

"Don't attempt to move Mr Solomons, you're not in a good way and need to remain still for now, we just need to administer some more morphine now that you are conscious, you've been out for a week this time." The plump nurse with the bossy disposition said. 

He looked to the left for the first time when he heard someone gruffly clear their throat and was faced with the sight of his own mother, sat atop a stool at his bedside. 

"What in christs name are you doing here?" He said and his voice came out rather high pitched and so he coughed deeply to regain the masculinity he seemed to have misplaced when laid in this bed, weak and feeble. 

"I'm your mother Alfred, why wouldn't I be here, you nearly got yourself killed.... yet again, and this time it was closer than ever before!" She chastised.   
"A mother should never have to watch a child go before her... god bless Florence and all she must be going through" she said solemnly. 

"Florence? Who the fuck is Florence woman, how drugged am I, I don't have a fucking clue what your rabbiting on about. And I feel starving, I need a Nurse, where's the bedside manner in this place ehh?"

"Alfred I'm talking of Florence Bennet. Arthur's mother, I...... well I don't know how to tell you this easily but I'm afraid Arthur died when you were both kidnapped. They shot him in the knee and he died from his blood loss. The perpetrators haven't been caught." She lowered her head at delivering the dismal news.

Alfie's nostrils flared as everything came back to him. Prison, the whore, the warehouse, Limbert, shootings, skirts and black.   
So Bennet was gone.   
Alfie had felt great losses in his life, friends from the war, relatives through the years, hell even Rosa but he had never felt the knawing ache in his gut at the loss of his best friend. His mind drifted in the silence to poor Helena, young and widowed with four boys to care for and no husband to do it for her. She had lost her husband and four strapping lads had lost a father because he was doing bidding for his best friend. Bidding for him.  
Alfie tried to reach for a basin positioned on the side dresser by the bed as the bile rose in his throat but he was paralysed with pain from his upper body and couldn't even move his left side which resulted in the vomit omitting itself down his hospital issue gown before he could stop it happenening. His mother flew to the basin and held it in front of his chin while he wretched and wretched for moments of pained release. His temples thumped and his eyes burned with the threat of his tears but there was nothing he could do. Bennet had died on his watch, trying to keep him from jail when it wasn't his problem to solve. Rosa had died on his watch because he was too wrapped up in his own business to notice the enormity of what was behind the scenes, the whore that tried to free him died on his watch because he didn't hear the cunt coming and had walked everyone into a trap that was completely avoidable all along.   
He may as well have murdered them all himself, he thought, as his gown was cut from his body and taken away by another nurse.  
He hadn't any energy to care that he was now being babied and washed by them with a bedpan and sponges because he had vomited down himself.   
His mother got up to leave when he was settled once more, under the nurses orders that he needed more rest and some food brought in and she told him she would be back again in the morning.

"Hold on a minute, kidnapping?" Alfie asked before she left, remembering her phrase when she told him of Bennet's demise. 

"The kidnapping Alfie?"

"What fucking kidnapping?" He pressed, bewildered. 

"Don't you remember any of it Alfie? Not at all?" She asked.

"If you don't know, then you don't know, yeah?" He said so that she could fill in the gaps for him.

"You were on your way to the courthouse to prove your innocence for the murder of that unsavoury lady they said was pregnant, your letter of proof was handed in. You're cleared.  
But on the way back your car was ambushed and you were bundled into a warehouse. The men shot another lady, they shot Bennet and then they shot you before escaping. The police know you were framed and they are looking for a man" she paused trying to think of a name as Alfie's eyes widened. 

"Limbert. John Limbert" he declared.

"Yes son, the man fled and is missing." She finished before leaving. 

Alfie laid staring at the ceiling trying to retrieve his account of what happened from the backdrop of his confused mind. Didn't John Limbert hit the floor with him? 

He must have got up.   
He must be still out there   
And Where the hell was Cora?   
Fuck


	43. Chapter 43

Two days later, Alfie had all but had enough. If the cunts didn't release him soon he felt as though he could top himself as he was finding it more restrictive than the damn solitary prison he had just been in.   
That bossy britches nurse was getting on his every last nerve and she seemed to shut him up whenever she could by administering enough pain relief to tranquillise a horse. Maybe she could see that he was hung like one, he thought to himself and chuckled.   
He actually chuckled in the midst of everything that was going on and that's how he knew he had definitely gone absolutely stark raving mad and needed to leave.   
It hurt his chest every time he thought of Cora, of wether she had heard about his clearance of crime and reputation, and of the investigation into her father. He hoped her father wouldn't do anything rash if he was alive and kicking, like taking Cora away, or hurting her in some way to get at him.   
Normally he would send Bennet to find her, or at least get word to her and enlighten him on everything he couldn't figure out in his confinement but that was all gone now.   
He had a visit from Rimington, one of his drivers, who told him the Bakery was still alive but sleeping, and not torched. He could have sent the man out for his information like he would once have sent Bennet but if there was a lesson Alfie had learnt from all this it was he would never again allow another person's life to be taken because of his own stupidity. Well not anyone who didn't deserve it, innit? So he told him to go home to his wife and not to worry about any of it.  
The police came to him too, and stayed for half a day. They said he was clear of all charges brought and that John Limbert seemed to be the guilty party and the letter was in fact proof. The body of Nancy Smith helped the police piece together even more evidence as the gun used was the same for her as was used on Rosa too and the weapon was still missing. As was Limbert.   
They had raided all of his businesses and addresses and questioned his entire family and it all pieced together that he was guilty with multiple motives for setting Alfie up. Then there was the letter from the bakery which listed multiple numbers of Limberts crimes and gave leads of proof for allsorts across the entire length of the city. He was a wanted man on borrowed time but yet no one had seen head nor tail of him. 

The reason for this became clear when Alfie got a visit to his bedside from Thomas Shelby the very next day. 

"Tommy" Alfie nodded when he came in and sat down. He wasn't even bothered that he had brought Arthur with him who usually pissed him the hell off whenever he came into his company.   
He couldn't really be bothered with tit-for-tat anymore, for what was the point? 

"Alfie" Tommy said with a somber look.   
"We've tidied up" he said taking off his flat cap and resting it on his knee. 

"How so?" Alfie said his lips pressed into a hard line. He wished people would say what they meant. His brain was foggy with morphine and it was taking him a sight longer to work out people's riddles.

"Limbert. His associates and ...Cora.   
One of your brothers has the bakery til you're back on your feet. And we're taking good care of the racecourse" he explained. "Docks are free, Sabini's after 'em but we have him stalled for now."

Alfie's eyes darted back and forth between the two men, waiting for further speech but none came.   
He sighed wearily. "Start from the beginning mate. I don't have a bastard clue about any of this any more."

Half an hour later in a conversation of hushed pauses as the nurse pottered in and out, Tommy had explained the majority of the situation to Alfie.   
He told him that Cora had shot her father and that they had disposed of the body afterwards and told police of a staged kidnapping.   
They explained while Alfie listened, that Limberts man had escaped but they had tracked him down and disposed of him in similar ways.   
It took Alfie more than a few moments to register the fact that Cora had used a weapon and actually killed her flesh and blood to save his life. Tommy and then the nurse had to prevent him from leaving the hospital to find her that very moment and in the end only the pain when he moved prevented that. 

When he was calm again and the nurse had left, they went on to explain Cora was with her mother in the country and that she was being well looked after, guarded and given money. They said they would leave Alfie up to sorting Limbert's financial affairs and giving Cora and her family what they were due once he was out but in the meantime they realised her welfare was his main concern and assured him over and over that they had it covered.  
Alfie devised they were probably more capable to protect her than he had been so far and with the threat of her father now gone it was safe to assume she was physically safe. He wanted to see her more than anything though and asked Tommy if she was coping alright. 

"A sight better than you'd imagine Alfie yeah, she's a tough cookie" he said as he shook his head.   
"My Grace has had a few words, explained about this kind of life we lead, she seems to understand" he grumbled. 

Alfie was disgusted in himself regardless, She should never have had to go through that, he should have got rid of Limbert through other means when he was inside and instead had greedily waited so that he could have the pleasure himself. That mistake had nearly cost him his own life, had already cost him Bennet's life and he could be assured poor Coras life would never be the same again. He expected she would hate him, blame and curse him and never want to see him again, but still he sent Tommy with a message to ask her. If he could see her just the once, then he would leave her alone forever if that was her wish, just once and then he could tell her how he was sorry with his whole heart and how the chance to love her had been the greatest experience of his sorry life.   
He didn't deserve her forgiveness but he still wanted to beg for it. The love of an innocent woman had changed his whole perspective on the world, and he wanted to thank her for that even if he had been better off and blissfully ignorant before her, for he had also been empty. 

"So il see you when I'm out of this shithole next week then mate yeah? and you tell Cora I need to speak with her, that I need her to come and see me here, can you do that for me Tommy? I owe you lad and once I'm out of here you'll get what you deserve."

Tommy and Arthur tipped their hats in Alfie's direction. 

"Consider it done Mr Solomons" they both said in unison before going to leave. 

"Oh and one more thing before you go lads" Alfie called after them. 

"I don't know which brother you've got in my bakery, but you better go in there right now and get rid of him, because my rum supply will be gone before fucking dusk." 

The men laughed as they left and Alfie didn't because he was deadly serious. 

"Fucking ridiculous" he mumbled. 

*

He was sleeping when she put her head around the doorframe two hours or so later.   
He looked peaceful despite the array of bandages that poked from the tip of the nightgown he was wearing. His chest was rising and falling like it should be, and she could hear the low grumble of a snore that made her smile lovingly at him.   
Devoid of a shave, his beard was longer and more wiry than it had been since she had known him, and without his hair product he looked wild and unkept, like his spirit was and so it all suited him very well. 

Cora tiptoed in and held the door so it didn't slam behind her, she really didn't want him to lose sleep from her disturbance. She left the stems of heather in ribbon, taken from Richmond hill and placed them on his bedside table, before leaving the room again undetected, her hand instinctively going to her rounded tum as she walked in the direction of the bottom floor, for her second appointment with the midwife.


	44. Chapter 44

She passed a few nurses in the corridors, a few worried-looking relatives and a hospital porter man, as she made her way to the bottom floor of the busy building.  
She wondered again wether she looked different to people now? Now that she was a murderer. She thought that when people looked into her eyes they might discover her dark, foreboding secret and so since it had happened she found it almost unbearable to look into people's eyes at all, walking with her gaze cast to the floor. 

Grace Shelby stood up as she entered the maternity waiting area and beckoned her over to the front desk to check in.  
Tommy's wife had become a shoulder to lean on in the past few weeks since she took her father's life, from soothing her during episodes of massive guilt-ridden anxiety, to helping her realise that despite the man being a relative he was also a monster and she had therefore done the world a service. 

**"He rapes me every few days now. I can't stand the feel of him inside me and every sense I possess seems to reject him from my body so the force of it hurts even more.  
** **I wish he would stop Alfie, but it's been this way for as long as I can remember.  
John Limbert is the devil and he will kill me one day ....."**

The words in the letter would haunt her more than what she had done, ever could.

**The devil.**

Cora shut it out and greeted the lady at the front desk. 

"Mrs Cora Solomons, to see Nurse Abrahams please" she said to the kind lady with blonde hair and spectacles.  
She had taken a Jewish midwife on Abigail's pushy instruction and she actually rather liked her, the midwife that is. Abigail was being a thorn in her side but she knew once Alfie came back he would put a stop to his mothers interference.  
She had also taken to calling herself his wife, for the sake of professional matters at least. She wanted due care and diligence in her treatment and women that were expecting a child out of wedlock were outcast so it was easier all round to change it to a name that made her smile.  
There was also the small matter of her maiden name belonging to the devil and she swore she would never do so much as whisper it again.

Grace sat beside Cora for support as she had her urine sampled and her blood pressure recorded against a chart. She was given a prescription for vitamins and an assistant in the corner was waiting to sketch the baby's image once she had been sized and measured. This was the exciting part that she wished Alfie was present for, but she wasn't altogether sure being present was his intention yet, for he knew nothing of all of this. The last time he saw her was when she ran out on him in prison and she wasn't entirely sure he didn't hate her for it.

A few days after the shooting, Cora was still continuing to vomit everyday, as well as feel exhausted, bloated, and tearful.  
Now, as a young woman who had just been forced to kill her own father at point blank range to prevent him killing her fiancé, she should probably expect all of these symptoms and many more. The fact that Alfie was also in a coma was keeping her brain in a constant state of hyper anxiety, and her body was feeling the affects.  
It took her realising that she had not had her time for as many weeks as she could remember, to even contemplate the symptoms were not coming from shock or worry.  
And the further realisation that she had felt this same way before the incident even happened, cemented the theory.  
She had confided her suspicions to Grace when she brought her groceries one morning and so when Cora took a hot bath and collapsed in the tub the same day, Grace gave her the confirmation she had already suspected. 

"You're with child love, I guarantee it" the older lady quipped in her Irish accent.

As if she hadn't known this would happen when her and Alfie had been passionately mating every minute they could steal all those weeks ago.  
An appointment with a doctor had confirmed it and here she was, waiting to see how far along.  
It was a lot to wrap her head around but as soon as she knew for sure, everything changed.  
There was going to be a baby. And it was going to be loved. And it had a Mother and father that despite the cold hearted world surrounding them, loved one another enormously.  
Everything would be ok. Alfie would recover and she could hide the secret she held inside so that they could live a moral, normal life as a Proper family. A full stop following a happily ever after: or so she desperately hoped.

"Well Mrs Solomons, you're about ten weeks gone." The midwife revealed.

*

He woke to the sound of a glass clinking and water being poured and he remembered where he was as he opened his eyes and was greeted with fat Bertha, that ever present force of fucking nature they called a nurse.

"Morning Mr Solomons. Me gots some good news for you, I 'ave! That doc gonna see about giving you release today." She said, obviously pleased about the fact he would be going soon. 

"Oh aye? ... You mean he's gonna tug my little Jimmy off, is that right woman?, give me some release? Well it's about fuckin time, me balls are painful" 

The returning silence and red creep of blush as she fled the room made him smile more than he had in weeks. If he knew his filthy mouth would have got rid of her that quickly he would've done it the very first time he woke up in this place.  
When she had gone and he reached over for the water that she poured, he noticed the heather stems on the table.  
They were tied with the same tartan ribbon that he had tied Coras with and he knew without a shadow of a doubt they were from Richmond hill and that pretty little lady he had proposed to upon it.  
His heart started beating a fast rhythm of excited thumps and his face cracked into a grin like a kid on Christmas morning as he took them in his hands and inhaled a big drag of scent up his nostrils. Now his balls really were painful, and he was starting to tent the bed linen as the thought of rolling around with Cora in the grass had him hard as stone beneath it. 

He wondered if she had been here? Or who in fact had been here to bring these flowers and while he was tempted to call Nurse Bertha back to find out, he wanted to at least believe his woman had been to his bedside for a few moments of bliss before he did.  
The thought that she had come to him and still loved him despite it all had him wondering if it was all kinds of morally wrong to jerk off in a hospital gown? 

*  
That afternoon, after being discharged with heavy medication and instruction of bed-rest, Alfie was taken by an ambulance to his home.  
He was in a wheelchair to help preserve his energy for recuperation. The bullet had pierced him deep, causing him to lose enough blood it lowered his flow to the brain and induced a stroke. He was awfully lucky to be alive and it was going to take some time to reveal the full extent of the damage to his body and mind.  
The morphine helped, and the fact that he had cum allover his bedspread as a goodbye present for bossy Bertha before he left the hospital dressed in his old clothes with the heather on his sated lap.  
Arriving at home, Rimington was there to help him from the ambulance and wheel him up the steps backwards. It actually went down like something out of a comedy sketch with him nearly falling out of the thing as it jerked up each step, the man heaving it and telling him he needed to lose a ton in weight. 

"I 'ave, ya cunt!.... it's the fucking steel!" Was the shouted greeting his entire family heard as he crossed the threshold to his house.  
The entrance hall was decorated with a banner that said welcome home, and as he looked around at the startled faces that matched his own, he slowly watched them transform into grins before his eyes. 

"Some things never do change Alfred, am I to fetch the soap and water to clean out your potty mouth, or are you gonna start talking like a gentleman for once in your life?" His mother said as she took the handles of the chair and wheeled him into the crowd. 

He felt like a cunt. Here he was, deadly Alfie Solomons, being told off by his mother as she wheeled his fucking disabled self into a little family party, his brothers looking guiltily at him as he passed. He noticed in about five seconds which one had a red rim around his eyes and made a mental note to kick him in his balls later for obviously drinking his rum. 

When he reached the kitchen he saw her. There was no one else in the room and even if there was he doubted he would have noticed them at all because his woman was here, barefoot in his own kitchen.  
She had nothing of the grandeur he was used to seeing on her frame, in fact she looked like a housemaid in a plain beige dress, no jewellery that he could see and her hair falling all about her shoulders. She had a cloth draped over one of them and dried patches of flour on her apron. He liked her better like this, and by the smile on his mothers face, she did too.  
His mouth fell open for a moment, and they just stared at each other because neither one of them could formulate a word or thought. It was like being suspended in time.

"I'm presuming you two do actually know one another?" his mother piped up eventually, breaking the silence of the intense atmosphere. 

"Leave us yeah, ma?" Alfie said, not taking his eyes off Cora who had now clasped her hands over her mouth as her eyes filled with tears.  
When his mother left he put his feet on the ground sturdily and used the oak table to try and rise from his seat. 

"Alfie no" she said rushing forward with concern etched on her pretty brow.  
"You might tear something" she said putting her hands on her hips when he stopped and narrowing her eyes at him in warning.

"Don't fuss yeah? I just wanna stand, alright? Let me do this." He said, holding the edge of the table again. With a wince and a low groan he managed to get himself to some kind of standing position, the hunch of his shoulders taking on a new meaning and his stoop now forced upon him.  
When he was at her height she glared at him disapprovingly and he couldn't help but laugh as she pursed her lips trying to be angry and then crinkled her nose in laughter too. She came forward and wrapped her arms around his neck, thick with fur, his hair flicking at the back of it.  
"Alfie you need a hair cut, and a beard trim and a long soak in the bath" she said looking over his features covered in a wiry bush of fur and hardly believing he was beneath it at all. 

"What I need Cora, is your lips on mine. And Now." He said deeply, before taking her face in his hands, wobbling slightly in his stature as he balanced on weak legs and pushed his big lips onto her own smaller ones. The sound was loud in the quiet space and he groaned as she pulled him into her slightly by his waist and let her tongue brush past his wet lips into the heat of his mouth to tangle it with his own. She smelt like the challah bread she had obviously been cooking for the party, doughy and warm and so fucking welcoming he felt like he had never left her lips. His worries just melted away. In fact, for the moment their mouths moved together, everything was gone and all that was left was the love between them. 

"Baby, I've missed you" she said moving away but touching her forehead to his own to keep close to him, feeling his hot, heavy breath on her face. 

He bit his lip before replying.  
"Everything's going to be ok. You knows that yeah? I'm gonna take care of you. No one gets to hurt you again. Do you still want to marry me?" He asked her.  
Since the moment he had seen her in his kitchen so perfectly domesticated, the alpha male caveman in him had wanted her pregnant with his surname, and he wondered if his offer of marriage from before was something she still wanted despite everything that happened between them. 

She held out her left hand in reply and his diamond sparkled under the glow of the lamps in the windowsill, rested upon her finger.  
He forgot his injuries as he pulled her back into his embrace and it was worth the pain he felt as they lost each other in their passion once more. 

A few minutes later there was the sound of "Ahem" as a man cleared his throat behind them.  
They turned around reluctantly to see Tommy Shelby flanked by his wife and son with three smiles across their faces at the reunion happening in front of them. 

"Tommy" Alfie nodded in greeting. 

"It's mighty Good to see you back on home soil, Mr Solomons" he replied, as Grace smiled knowingly at Cora.

"Yeah? Well don't just stand there eh?" Alfie said with a grimace, "make yourself useful and help me back into this chair will yer?"

As tommys son chuckled, Cora rolled her eyes.  
"Take him to the dining room please Tommy" she instructed. "The meal is almost ready".

*

A makeshift bedroom had been created for Alfie in his drawing room and Cora had been surprised to see a grand piano and a mandolin in the space as well.  
Now that all the guests had left after a lovely dinner and he had been helped into his bed that consisted of a padded mattress and plenty of quilts and blankets on the floor, Cora lit the fire with his instruction and wanted to ask him about the instruments.

"No ..no.... not like that! further down .. in the grate.. the coals." Cora was baffled, and when the fire suddenly burst to light after she had tried for the seventh time, Alfie clapped loudly and did a stupid giggle that wasn't at all manly enough for him, before beckoning her over with a tilt of his head. 

"I'm so sorry" he said, turning serious as soon as she was laid on his good side, her head neatly tucked under his arm and her body beneath the covers.

"Alfie don't, not tonight. Hell, Not even at all. I wouldn't care if we never had to mention it again for the rest of our days." she said.

He sighed loudly, holding her tighter.

"I'm not ready to discuss it and I'm not sure I ever will be." She explained quietly tracing a line with her fingertip across the hair on his chest. She stopped at his exposed nipple as his breath hitched in his throat.

"Well there's one thing I have to say, I can't not say it and so I'll get it over with. I want to thank you. And that's it, as well as reassure you that things are completely taken care of and on my life you will never have to go through anything remotely like it again, not ever. Yeah? Not ever sweetie...." he said kissing the hair on top of her head and holding her close as good as he was able with one arm. 

"I know Alfie. I don't blame you. I only blame him and my hatred left the world with him. There's only me and you now" she said, her hand travelling down her body until it reached her tummy with it's obvious swell that wasn't obvious to the man next to her it seemed. Well there was more than just them two, there was this babe too, but she wasn't ready to tell him in the same discussion as mention of her father so she held off. 

"Do you play?" She asked him pointing to the piano in front of them. 

"Oh yes." He replied as she raised her eyebrows.  
"I play the women, like a fiddle" he finished, and had to duck as she swung her hand wildly at him. 

"The only thing stopping you from getting a slapped cheek Solomons, is the hole in your shoulder. If I'm going to be a wife I won't compete with talk of other women" she said with a small bit of playfulness tinged with sincerity to her tone. 

"They couldn't compete. You're it for me." He said to her, powerful and serious, and as she looked up at him his eyes were burning with a fire she had almost grown to forget about because she hadn't seen it in so long. 

_Lust_

"I wanna make love to you" he said, simply.


	45. The End

When you're weary, feeling small  
When tears are in your eyes, I will dry them all  
I'm on your side, oh, when times get rough  
And friends just can't be found  
Like a bridge over troubled water  
I will lay me down  
Like a bridge over troubled water  
I will lay me down

 

They lay beneath the covers as the dark drew in, and Alfie tried to ignore the invisible ton of weight on his shoulders about what was going to happen from now on. Everything was such a mess, his best man gone, his businesses half-ruined, his alliances torn between false friends and real foes across the entirety of London. He had lost his place in society and he wasn't sure he had the will or the desire to regain it now. This was the point where the enemy would move in and take everything he had.  
However he didn't really seem to care about that either in this moment of complete clarity, he was in too much pain to worry about material things. What was lost was lost, and what would be, would now be. 

As always Cora was his pillar of strength. His focus, his lighthouse in that treacherous stormy sea of gangster life.  
Even during the turmoil of the months since he met her, when she wasn't present, when they were running from their feelings, she was always his focus.  
He didn't know what made her walk into his bakery that day, be it divine intervention, coincidental luck or pure fate- But whatever it was he thanked his lucky stars for it, because she had shown him another way to live and feel and for the first time ever he felt alive, despite actually being on death's door.  
He had always being so resistant to anything good in his past and for some reason, Cora being that sole reason, the tides had now turned.

She was breathing heavily at the side of him and he knew it was because she was becoming aroused. He was toying with her exposed breast with his finger tips and tracing circles around her pebbled nipples while lost in his thoughts.  
It was probably mighty unfair of him, as his mobility was minimal due to his injuries and he wasn't sure how he was supposed to give her loving tonight but he desperately craved her body and desire, even if all he could offer her was his touch and affection in return. 

Cora seemed to realise he was struggling as he shifted his position and winced at the pain of the exertion. She had never been a vixen in the bedroom as Alfie had always been in control of every single moment, even if she had been on top of him, he had guided and moved her, held her still whilst bucking his hips upwards to give them both such intense pleasure.  
Tonight, she realised he was probably too ill and week for this to be any kind of physical success and so she moved from under him and climbed over his body, straddling his hips with a thigh at each side to help things along.  
She put no weight on his upper body at all, mindful of his pain, as she leant forwards, her hair covering them like a dark curtain, as she pressed her lips against his own ever so gently. He growled into the kiss, as her nipples that he had tweaked to arousal rubbed against the hair on his chest below the position of his bandages.  
He had a shaved area where he had been operated on and it made him extra sensitive to the tips of her hair strands tickling against it, and the warm globe of her breast as it brushed past.  
After such a long abstinence he felt he might burst just from the foreplay alone and he was frustrated beyond measure as she moved her mouth on him, that he couldn't just pull her underneath him, separate her legs and fuck her passionately between them like he wanted to, like he always had done.

"Cora" he moaned as she travelled down his body, kissing him along the way. He could hardly believe she was real and here, back in his bed and back in his life.  
She kissed the bandages that still surrounded most of his chest, lifting one slightly to access the shaved section and licking it as she went. 

"Fuck, woman" he said, his eyes closing over as her wet flesh tongued him in little kitten licks, down further and further, dipping in his navel and following the heavy trail of fur that led to his groin, playing with it in her fingertips. He suddenly realised her intentions and his heart began a steady thud in his chest.

"You don't have to do that love, what about... what about you?" He asked as his head tipped back involuntarily at the feel of her breath tickling his thickening shaft with hot air. 

"Don't worry about me Alfie, there's plenty of time for all that once you're better. Let me take care of you for tonight. I want you to feel like a king" she said grinning up at him. "You deserve it baby."

Oh he felt like a king alright, with his queen licking the smooth end of his cock as she took it in her slender hand and warm mouth, wetting it gently.  
He took pride in the fact that he was the one who taught her how to do this, and boy was she good at it under his instruction. He had blown his deposit over many-a-surface of her body before now when she did this to him, and he knew he was about to lose control and fast. It had been too long. 

She let the saliva drop from her lips, and he watched as it dripped downwards on the taut flesh of his erection, pooling into his pubic hair and glistening in the low light.  
She looked up and caught his eye, the twinkle in them combined with the smirk on her lips before she took the swollen tip into her mouth again, made him jerk upwards, craving the friction and seal of her pretty mouth against himself. 

"Look at me beautiful... yeah?" He said as she flicked her gaze up to him and fit as much of him in as she could, taking him to the back of her throat.  
He could feel the soft heat of it, as the sensitive tip bumped against the furthest part, their eyes meeting for the briefest of seconds before he lost his control and thrust forward of his cock's own accord. 

Cora gipped as her eyes watered, the size of him too much for her small oral structure to accommodate all that well, and he withdrew from her immediately. 

"Ah fuck, sorry love, I'm carried away, your mouth feels too good, you're gonna have to sit on me lap" He said gruffly, serious and lustful, his eyes full of fiery desire.

She wiped her lips with the back of her hand and smiled at him shyly as she began to unbutton herself from her garments.  
He watched her do it, his cock throbbing so much it was painful, a dull ache pounding in his balls, willing her to hurry up and strip for him as she coyly removed her cotton panties before his eyes.

When she was naked she pulled Alfie's trousers completely off, taking his underpants and belt with them and then his socks. His shirt was already unbuttoned the whole way so she left that as it was, and climbed up on his body as he lay flat on the mattress.  
She hovered over him, sitting down in his lap as he wanted, his erection squashed behind her, straining against the cheeks of her bottom. 

"Love, that's not helping." He said with his brow furrowed and his mouth opened wide. He managed to hold onto her hips trying to raise her back up, wetting his bottom lip eagerly, but it was too painful to try and move her.

"But you wanted me to sit on your lap Alfie, didn't you?" She smiled both innocently and wickedly, sucking her finger and starting a slow grind of circular movements that made his pubic hair tickle against the front of her sex. She was finding it harder to toy with him, she wanted the act as much as he did and they had already had to wait for it long enough. 

"Yeah, that I did." He nodded in sarcastic agreement.  
"Shall I be more specific then, yeah? I want you sitting on my fucking cock" he growled, as she giggled and finally raised herself up, reaching for his penis that was now as hard as steel but still encased in that soft velvet flesh.  
She rubbed the swollen end of him up and down her sex which was so moist Alfie couldn't quite believe it and he bit his lip, eyes snapping shut in pleasure and a loud groan escaping his throat as she finally allowed him to breach her slowly.

Pushing down with a torturously teasing amount of pressure, Cora seated him inside herself and gasped at the overpowering tingle of feeling it gave her. 

"Ahhhh, fuck" Alfie cursed, gripping her hips as she sat on him and pulled up her legs until her feet were flat at either side of his thighs.  
He wasn't expecting her to do what she did next, which was to lean back, twisting her hands behind herself onto the tops of his thighs, and start to undulate with a forceful speed.

From his viewpoint he could see everything, from the enjoyment on her pretty face, to the bounce of her breasts as she moved and the lips of her cunny swallowing him over and over.  
He concentrated hard on not cumming, but the overpowering of his senses was inevitable, as he watched her squatting and grinding on his length. He didn't know how he managed to find a lady of propriety who acted like the dirtiest whore in the bedroom and social royalty out of it. 

Fuckin'ell he was lucky. 

He used his right hand to reach out and rub her clitoris, noticing it was swollen and slick with her arousal, and then used his fingers to gently move circles over it, stimulating her in the hope she would tip over the edge before he did. 

"I'm gonna need you to come apart for me Cora, I'm not gonna last, it's .... it's too " he groaned as her movements became irregular and she started to cum on him. He watched as her walls tugged against him, violently spasming in pleasure and her short pants of breath turned into small, pained gasps. He wanted to reach for her, his injuries stopping him again as his own end neared.  
He might never have realised one could feel intense pleasure with bursts of sharp pain at exactly the same moment, but his body had a mind of its own as Cora rode out her end on top of him and as if reading his thoughts and granting his wishes she brought herself down against his chest, letting them be close as she continued grinding it out. 

Alfie grabbed her head in both hands, bringing her mouth down to him, his breath quickening, his chest heaving and hurting with every exhale but he knew that this was worth every twinge of it as they kissed madly.

"I'm gonna fill you baby, I'm full of it, do you want it? Can I do that ... baby..?" He said panting hot breath in her ear. 

"Yes ... yes cum in me Alfie." She said and he did exactly as he was told.

As he gripped her head into his neck, it was bulging, the veins beneath the red skin prominent as he stretched it tight in his pleasure. His balls sent an electric current of feeling to his brain and a rush of semen down the length of his cock, that burst out of him and deep into his future wife as she pressed down with all her might, crying out at the feel of his hot seed flooding and filling her just like he said it would.

Alfie felt like he blacked out for a moment, his vision graining before returning to a state of normalcy, as Cora got off of him and immediately cleaned herself with the bedspread, sighing in contentment.  
She pulled the second sheet from underneath up and over both of their worn out bodies and snuggled down beneath them, as the oil lamp faded and Alfie's breathing slowed down again. 

"I love you sweetie" he said as she nuzzled him, closing his eyes for sleep. The act had exhausted him that much that he was falling under after mere seconds with his eyes shut but they flashed back open immediately when she replied to him. 

"You're going to be a father, Alfie. I'm having your baby."

"You fucking what?" He said, a grin forming on his face as he turned it to hers, his eyes were wide and his pupils were massively dilated, like stormy seas of dark grey and black. 

"I'm having your baby" she repeated, pulling his palm into her body and placing it upon the small bump he hadn't even noticed until right this second.

Her own eyes flashed a glint of light back at him. The lighthouse - guiding him, bringing him home. He wasn't sailing solo any more. He wasn't alone. He was going to have a family. 

A single tear rolled down his cheek as he held her close to him and thanked the Lord, thanked Jesus, the Holy Spirit, or whatever divine bastard sat on that throne, because he owed them that - a thank you. 

"Thank you Sweetie.." he whispered into her ear as she cried.


	46. Epilogue

A few weeks later Cora had set about the task of making kreplach dumplings on the copper hot-pot stove. She had moved in with Alfie immediately after his return because god knows he needed a nurse-maid with his injuries, a cook to fatten him up again and a woman's touch in this place. Plus he had asked her to and she couldn't stay away, he made her feel safe.  
She soon had the place in a clinically clean, pristine and feminine condition with fresh flowers from the farmers market contained in glass vases in every room. He told her he wanted heather, and honeysuckle and roses and none of that lavender shit, which she happened to like, but never mind. Maybe he was allergic. 

As she stirred the kosher stew that was bubbling away nicely she heard an almighty crash upstairs and curses of thunderous rage echoing around the wooden floors.  
Rather than feel at all worried and jumping at loud noises like she had done lately, she simply rolled her eyes in exasperation, turned the heat to low and took off her apron, tutting as she climbed the grand staircase that she had now adorned in a rich red carpet to make the place feel more homely. Her expanding bump was a lot more prominent now on her still slender frame and her gowns were pulling tighter and tighter with every day that passed.  
When she reached the spare room she leant against the door frame and stifled her giggles as she watched Alfie hopping about on one foot and making a spectacle of himself. 

"Did you drop the hammer on your foot again?" She asked him, amused. "You look like rumplestiltskin doing that"

"No, not the hammer love, the whole fuckin toolbox, innit?!" He replied, his pained face causing her to stifle her giggles even if she wasn't doing a great job at it. He sat down slowly on the wooden floor, defeated, and clutched at his booted foot.

"That Baby's gonna be sleeping with us at this rate if I can't get this crib together proper" he complained in masculine frustration. 

"Oh and you'd be happy with that would you?" She asked him. "A bairn between us every night, separating my naked body from your own?" she winked. 

"Right, pass me that screwdriver immediately" Alfie quipped, causing her to giggle again as he got up and winced.  
He came over to her and put his arms around her waist before letting them travel down to her backside where he pulled her into his groin and breathed in her sweet feminine scent. She could feel the hardness of his member in his trousers and she smiled contentedly into the fuzz of his beard.  
The knowledge of her pregnancy had done nothing to abate his need for her, in fact it seemed to have made him happier and hornier than she had ever known him to be. And more protective, she could barely leave the house without him fussing over her and acting like he was interested in buying table runners or groceries just so he could stay by her side. 

"Have you got a hammer in your pants Alfie?.... it's poking me in the leg" she giggled, trying to remove herself from his embrace playfully. 

"Oh you've got that right sweetheart, I'll hammer you between the legs right now with it if you want?" He said, eyes wide in proposition as he let her go, returning to his furniture building with determination and an erection harder than a steel pipe.  
He looked funny doing domestic fatherly duties, and Cora was so happy at the sight of it. It made her realise that she was always happy these days, despite what had happened, they were learning to move on from it. Her days were filled with all things Alfie, the baby talk and planning for the future as a family. They were to be married in a month and she could barely wait for it. Both sides of the family were going to be there and Alfie had said it was to be no expense spared.  
"What else do I blow all my coin on?" He had said when they discussed it. Cora would have been ok with grandeur of course, because she was used to money and luxury, but she knew first hand it didn't account for happiness and so she wanted to go for the opposite type of affair.  
She planned a small intimate gathering on Richmond Hill, with a loose cotton dress that would hide her bump, and a bouquet of newly-picked heather and posies. They would be surrounded by family, friends and fresh air, just perfect in her eyes for their fresh start. 

"Those dumplings will be on the table in a half hour, okay?" She said as she left the room to continue her meal prep and daydreaming about the future. "Don't make me come and get you again like yesterday Alfie" she added, shaking her head and pointing her finger at his back as she descended the stairs.

"Dumplings is code word for tits ain't it?" He shouted after her, mumbling something about two plump dumplings and feasting on full mummy titties as he reinstated his hammering technique. He got no reply.

*

The week after Alfie had finally built a habitable crib for his impending child, he had to leave Cora as she knitted cardigans for the baby because he had business to attend to. He kissed her atop of her head as he left and told her he would be back before nightfall.  
It was a freezing afternoon and Alfie could think of a number of things he would rather be doing, and nearly all of them involved him and Cora and unsavoury positions of passion. Like the night before in bed.  
However, he was on his way for a scheduled meet up at his bakery with the peaky blinder brothers.  
Now since everything that had transpired with John Limbert, the two camps of men that previously quarrelled, were suddenly firm alliances and personal friends. When Tommy came to London, he stayed in Alfie's home as a guest with his family, and Alfie was forever grateful that his bonny wife Grace had been there for Cora when he couldn't be all those weeks back. 

His woman seemed to be masking her emotions well, but still Alfie heard her sob sometimes when she took a bath on an evening and believed he could not hear her distress and grief.  
He had tried to talk to her countless times, being a firm believer in women leaning on their men in times of need, yet he got nowhere in the hope of opening her up about it. She usually distracted him with drugging kisses that made him forget about the whole situation altogether. Of course he really had no problem doing this anyway, he just wished she could face what happened head-on instead of bottling it up inside her mind.  
He himself, had little difficulty in getting over the fact that the man had died brutally. Limbert had been a life-sucking leech for too long and now he was dead and buried it was more of a relief than anything else. To hell hath returned.  
He'd murdered so many souls it would make Cora's skin crawl but she would never have to know about any of that now. Or anything about his own savageries, because those acts were long gone, he was a changed man. A baker. 

Today was about handing over his excess Intel, for he had no use for it anymore. His main focus was to run his bakery just like he always had done. To make the brown bread, make the white bread, and to live a simpler life as a husband, father and protector. Ruling roost on the streets of Camden didn't seem quite so appealing anymore.  
He wanted to keep a handle on the docks because that would ensure his children would never want for anything, and so he agreed to share access to those with the Shelby's. They could of course do as they pleased with the whore business because he would never be setting foot in one of those places again. To want to use one or to run one made his stomach turn.  
Horse racing was lucrative but time consuming and so he gave his share of Epsom as a calculated gesture to Billy Kimber, therefore ensuring the weasel Sabini had very little support anywhere in England. He would be wiped out by the Shelbys anyway once they took over twickenham racecourse and all the finest stallions of the district. Another one bites the dust. Italian ponce. 

It left the small matter of giving Mrs Bennet the nest egg he had beseeched to Arthur after he died, handing over almost £1,000 of brass to the woman, to see her and the boys financially right now that they were devoid of a breadwinner. He owed them that.  
He swore to her that she would never want for nothing even if that money ran out, and that Arthur would want her to be happy, even if that meant one day laying in the bed of another man.  
Helena had refused to even accept company from Alfie for weeks after her husbands death on his bidding and when she did she slapped him forcefully across the face before collapsing into a heap on the floor. Her sons had quickly soothed her with liqueur and the begged removal of Alfie from their doorstep.  
When she received the money she spat in his face and yelled that all the dirty coin in the world wouldn't bring him back.  
He had wiped the mess off with anything but animosity as he knew he deserved the bitter and vicious words she gave to him now. The worst thing was, that however bad Helena tried to make him feel, it wasn't a patch on how he already felt because Bennet was gone. 

*

The day of the Solomons wedding arrived to a cloudy sky, and gales of blustering force. Cora stood watching the litter on the cobbled street whip in circles around the legs of horses and wheels of carriages because of the gales.  
Grace was stood behind her adjusting the lace veil and trying to clip it into position with fiddling fingers.

"You do realise hon, that it's probably going to whip straight across that field with today's weather and all my hard work here's for nothing" she laughed. 

"That's why I haven't styled my hair special" Cora replied, smiling. "Just simple. That's today's theme, and besides Alfie likes me natural, he's never been one for glitz and glamour has he?"

"Oh i beg to differ" came a voice from the stairwell. 

"He loves his mother and I'm very glamourous, wouldn't you ladies agree?" Abigail asked. She said it with a serious face but her eyes grew warm as she smiled and entered Coras bedchamber. 

"You're a vision. A vision in white." She said.  
Cora thanked her and thought back to the moment in time when she cornered her outside the bathroom and threatened her life. Oh how things had progressed into decency, she smirked to herself, and all it took was a change in religion.

"The women are like rabid packs down there, I'm holding them off for now with tea and cake but when all the food is prepared for later, they want to be let at you for make-up" she said, rolling her eyes in reference to Alfie's sisters, sister in laws, and aunties gathering in droves downstairs. Jewish women were fussing crowds of chatter and chaos and he had a huge family of them to deal with, whereas Cora only had the 2 brothers and 2 sisters, along with their families and her widowed mother.  
Coras guilt had almost eaten her inside out when she first delivered the news of her father's disappearance to Alma.  
She took it surprisingly well when the detectives told her the full peripheral of his wrongdoings and their notion that he was never coming back.  
She played a grieving widow until they vacated her doorstep and then she trashed the entire collection of porcelain teaware that she polished every Sunday, before sinking the contents of the gin cabinet and throwing up on the carpet. 

Cora and her sisters spent the night in her bed comforting her while she told them of a loveless marriage and his mental cruelty and sexual indifference. Cora knew from her past that her father had never been around, and she was glad because her mum got on with things. When he had returned for short spells he brought misery on the family and they couldn't wait to see the back of him again. The only thing he had ever provided was fortune, and now they knew the source of the coin they didn't even want to live by it.  
Her mother sold the estate and moved back to central London, where a few weeks on she was happy, working, and mixing with Alfie's family like they had always known each other. She even got on with Abigail, which surprised everyone, especially Alfie.  
Just then, Cora was broken from her daydreaming thoughts with the sound of Abigail's voice once more. 

"Dear, do you mind if I steal a moment alone with the bride?" She asked Grace, who looked at Cora for approval before smiling and vacating the dressing room to go and help with the flowers. 

"So..... any jitters?" She asked her future daughter-in-law, helping to remove the tied rags used to wave Coras long hair into wringlets. 

"No ma'am, not one" she beamed at her through the reflections in the mirror, because it was the truth. She knew she would want for nothing with Alfie. That she would be protected, honoured, respected and loved madly for the rest of her days. 

"I want you to have this then" his mother said, reaching into her front dress pocket and retrieving a box.  
Upon opening it, Cora saw a beautiful sapphire encrusted necklace, that looked delicate, old and extremely well worn. 

"It's not worth much... not in coin, but it's sentimental. It was Alfred's grandmother Amarosa's.  
She wore it on her wedding day, and I on mine. My own daughters have worn it, and since they've had a collection of shitbag sons, well.... I want you to have it. Because... well...." she seemed to struggle with the last part of her sentence, like it was painful to utter it out loud.  
"Because you are my daughter starting today. And it's you're something blue"

Cora felt the prickle of tears start behind her eyes at such a thoughtful gesture, and when she was ready to go one hour later, the necklace laid proudly sparkling against the pale skin of her chest.

*  
At the bottom of Richmond Hill, Alfie spat into the gravel beneath his feet where the stables stood. 

"I just need a minute, yeah??" he barked to Rimington and little Ollie from the Bakery, who were stood nearby in matching suits. His brothers knew well to keep a fair distance and had already started to make their way up the blustering incline of the grassy hill, leaving him to his nerves and his own wrath as he paced. 

Alfie wasn't used to feeling this way, he was petrified. What if she didn't come? What if she had decided he was the worthless piece of shit his father always said he was? What if the Jewish thing was too much? What if everything that had transpired was too much?  
Alfie took a deep inhale of the tobacco in pipe that he really shouldn't be smoking unless he wanted Cora to be kissing an ashtray on her wedding day. 

He was being irrational. And dramatic, and he knew that. He was acting like a woman.  
He knew Cora would be there to marry him and he knew she had never looked down on him in any way, in contradiction she always made him feel like the most important man on the planet, and that's why he wanted to marry her. That and her pert set of globes that he wanted to hungrily suckle on for all eternity, even if they ended up by her knees from all the babies he wanted her having.  
He chuckled to himself, put out his pipe and spat on the ground again. It was going to be fine. This was a new start. There was a baby coming, and that was a damn scarier notion that sealing his love with its mother.  
So he put his jacket together, making sure he seemed smart enough to do this thing. Pulling the material together, pulling himself together, and following swiftly behind the others up the steep slope. 

The wind was picking up force, and the gales blew some hats off around the clearing at the top. Seeing his mother flustered and grappling with her neck scarf made him smirk slyly under his moustache.  
It was typically simple of Cora to want to get married here, and not in the synagogue which was mighty impersonal and would have been for the benefit of everybody else. For the benefit of his righteous mother.  
He tried to persuade her for it to be just the two of them up here, alone with the heather and the rabbi but she said moving forward they were a family and that meant including the one they already had, in spite of Alfie's grumbled protests.  
She had converted to Judaism over the last month since the incident. She wanted to do it for Alfie even though he made it clear it didn't matter to him in the slightest. He suspected she was doing it for herself in all honesty, to become someone new and far removed from what she was as a Christian Limbert. Now that she was going to be a Jewish Solomons she could leave her old life and identity behind, along with the memories of her father.  
Of course it made his mother happy in all honesty, which in turn made his life a whole lot easier and so he was about to marry a Jewish bride, and she would be the most beautiful one he had ever seen in the entirety of his life. Hopefully he wouldn't chew a hole in his cheek before she arrived. 

He shook hands with people as he walked down the line, making out faces as he clasped hands but not truly seeing anybody. He wished that Bennet could be here by his side, and before he took his place under the bridal canopy known as the Chuppah, he looked up to the break in the cloud and the stream of light peeking through and took it as a sign that he was. God rest his soul. God being a cunt who better rest his soul. Because He didn't owe God anything. 

Once under the canopy, in his position, the rabbi was talking copious amounts of shit into his ear about the constitution of marriage and the eternal damnation one would be subjected to if they dared to break its constraints. Alfie nodded and pressed his lips into a line like he always did when he was stressing or about to lamp a man square on the jaw. Daniel Rimington was at his side with the ring and recognised the expression before it was too late. A worked up, nervous Alfie Solomons could do some damage with a left hook right now, and if he knocked out the Rabbi then there might not be a wedding. He pulled him away from the man, whispering in his ear to let him know that Cora was making her way up the hill. 

Alfie wasn't sure who had arranged for the violinist in the corner but it was cheesy as hell and he bet his mother had a whole lot to do with it. Finally, as the man began to play a melody, all the eyes of the crowd turned to see Cora, stood alone at the end of the clearing.  
Alfie's eyes went wide at the sight of her, the wind whipping the lace veil that covered her face, and making her hair blow in all directions. Her dress was stunningly intricate, he could see that from here, modest, yet simply decorated and a vision to behold. It covered her entirely, as the tradition insisted, and her bump was hidden well as she had wished.  
She held heather in her hand, and it was tied with the tartan ribbon that had taken on sentimental value to them both. At the sight of it, he cleared his throat to stop himself from whimpering because of her like a damn mule. 

She started walking towards him to the sound of the music, and it seemed to him the world continued on in slow motion, the crowd there but just not important, blurred outlines against the vivid centrepiece of his one true love. She looked like an angel. She was an angel, he was damn sure about that in this moment. 

"Alfie .... fucking move" Rimington grumbled almost inaudibly into his ear, and he suddenly jerked back into reality in time to remember what he was supposed to be doing.  
Cora wasn't been given away. She hadn't wanted either of her brothers to give her over to him and so together they had thought of something a little different that meant so much more to them both.  
He walked down the clearing as she walked up it, and before he knew it they had met in the middle.  
He took hold of her hand, encased in lace gloves and he kissed it, delicate and soft.

He said not a word, as he kept hold of her hand, linked his arm in her own as he turned, and they walked down towards the rabbi together. It was perfect, because they had met at a cross roads in both of their lives, and it represented finishing the journey together. 

The families clapped their hands as they reached the Rabbi dressed in his gold traditional gown, under the chuppah canopy and the violin desisted its tune. The only sound they could hear was the wind and the distant rumble of the town below.  
The canopy symbolises in Jewish marriages the building of the new home by the couple after they are married and though Alfie had complained about doing all the traditional rituals, his mother and in fact his future bride had insisted.  
Taking seats to sign the ketubah marriage contract, both their respective mothers Alma and Abigail took places by their sides to bear witness to it, signing as the couple did to legally give their selves to each other, whilst Cora denounced any other man.  
Alfie listened and signed his agreement to the obligations of the groom towards his bride, which included a promise to provide food, clothing, and marital relations.  
Upon the last statement he sniggered and felt the sharp kick of her heel against his ankle under the table, which only made him snigger more.  
Despite his giggles and wayward thoughts, Alfie was growing impatient, as Cora was hidden under the veil and he wanted desperately to see her face and look into her eyes for the first time since he left her to sleep alone the evening before. He was glad when they were asked to take a sip of the wine as the Rabbi recited the Betrothal blessing and then move away from their seats to stand with their backs to the crowd for the ring giving. 

He was instructed to reveal his bride and his eager fingers lifted the lace of her veil before the Rabbi could even finish his declaration. He bit his lip as he was finally able to look into the deep depths of her eyes.  
Her sweet face was made up with simple make-up, the lilac shimmer on her lids bringing out the brown with flecks of green in her irises. Her cheeks looked discreetly flushed, rather like they did when he had ravished her body and the whole sight of her caused a stirring in his trousers that would be entirely inappropriate if it continued to progress. He grinned at her, as she smiled back, and she could see the prick of tears in his glassy eyes as he was given her ring by Rimington and watched her remove her gloves to accept it.  
Instructed to place it on her finger he repeated the words of service:

"Behold, you're consecrated to me wi this ring according to the law of Moses and Israel." He said confidently in his thick cockney accent, as he placed the plain gold band over Cora's slender shaking finger.  
It symbolised the completion of the marriage and Alfie encased her in his arms for their first kiss.  
She had pre-warned him not to be inappropriate by using his tongue, and so he brushed it softly along the length of her lower lip, quickly, discreetly and lovingly as she giggled. He would never do as he was damn told and she should have known that.

After the seven blessings, considered an honour to read out, and taken on by Alfie and Cora's brothers, a glass was placed under Alfie's right foot.  
He had nearly fallen asleep on his very toes during the blessing recitals and had it not been for the sip of wine between each one he was sure he would have done. He only wished he had replaced it with the Rum from his Bakery.  
He lifted his bad leg, cursing silently as he brought it back down with force and smashed the glass into the ground. The crowd erupted in cheers of "mazel tov" and the violin once again erupted in tune.

They were married. Bound by love, bound by a shared heartache and bound at last by Jewish law. 

*  
Carrying his bride over the threshold should've been an easy task. He was a strapping and broad bloke and she was a slim lady, however add the fact that she was almost nineteen weeks pregnant, and he had a limp from sciatica and a weakened shot shoulder, it really was a sight for sore eyes.  
If you added in the amount of rum he had sunk at the wedding after party then it was a disastrous sight for disastrous sore eyes.

"Alfie, I swear if you drop me on my arse I will not be responsible for how hard my palm slaps you, so help me God!" Cora giggled as she held onto any upstanding surface along the corridor. 

"Can I not just walk you absolute mad case? This is dangerous!" She chastised him as he panted and heaved her towards their bedroom. 

"Ain't tradition is it? we've done this whole thing traditional and we ain't stopping at bedtime sweet cheeks" he said, stopping still for a second, hoisting her up again in his arms and continuing to head for the door which he kicked open and stumbled across the threshold of. 

"I'm gonna take your virginity now, that's how it works" he chuckled, burping as he laid her down less than delicately on top of the bedcovers.

"Oh for goodness sake Alfie." She said, standing up. "There'll be none of that business for you tonight ... you've already succeeded in that task after all because I'm pregnant, and exhausted and sore" she scalded him. "Be more considerate".  
She saw the look of disappointment spread across his face before he quickly replaced it with a painstaking smile. It was a forced one and she had to suppress her need to laugh at it.

"Yeah yeah, course Mrs Solomons ... you got me down that middle aisle and since we're following tradition you've gone all frigid now avent ya? I should've expected that yeah?" he said burping again in his half-drunken state.  
She finally allowed herself to giggle and started removing her shoes and stockings, the glint in her eye letting him know she was just mocking him and a grin crept across his face as he realised that she had been. He'd met his match here hadnt he? 

"Take that beautiful, expensive fuckin dress off." he said growling his desire at her as she loosened the neckline and turned her back to him. 

"Take it off for me" she whispered back, revealing the long line of buttons he was going to have to work with. 

"Why in the name of Jesus, Mary and what's-his-fuckin-face, do women need all these flimsy buttons, I can barely see em woman, let alone undo the cunts."

"Language husband" Cora mused. 

"Which one you want then? Russian?  
-slishkom mnogo knopok- or how about Hebrew since you're the perfect little Jewish wife all of a sudden" he hiccuped. 

"Here" he declared, taking hold of the seams and ripping with all his might. The delicate fabric split apart effortlessly and the tear was loud in the quiet of the bedroom.

"I want your body and I want it now" he said with fire in his eyes, his arousal straining to get out of his trousers. She turned around with her hands across her bared breasts and a look of accompanying shock on her face before her expression too, turned to one of desire.

"Take me then Alfie" she said as the dress dropped to the floor and she stood bared to him, porcelain skin awash with gooseflesh as she shivered under the weight of his heavy-lidded gaze. 

"Oh I'm about to" he said before letting his eyes dance their way down her figure, licking his lips as he glanced at her enormous breasts, and down to the swell of her belly that held his child. It made his hard-on rage, the sight of her full of his baby was the best aphrodisiac he had ever clapped eyes on. God strike him down if he was lying. Actually, he thought, God probably would anyway but he intended on consummating his marriage first. 

He removed his clothes slowly because he wanted to savour the view he had in front of him, her eagerness was on display like her body was and it was making his balls tingle with pleasurable anticipation.  
When he had stepped out of his shirt and suit-pants, removed his traditional kippah disc from his head and flung it across the room like a frisby, to the sound of her giggles, he became serious again as he removed his socks and underpants, his cock bobbing in front of him on a bed of wiry brown hair, and he took her by the hands, continuing to stand as he touched his lips against hers. 

"I love you, Mrs Cora Solomons" he whispered between his peppered kisses that had quickly started moving down the pale column of her neck like he was starved of her flesh.

"I love you more, Mr Alfred Solomons" she replied breathlessly as she tugged on the long lengths of his hair, watching his head move down to her breasts as he pushed her down gently on top of the comforter. 

As he nudged her legs apart, climbing on top of her and rubbing his straining arousal against the length of her wet sex, he bit back a smile of absolute contentment and when he pushed himself into her body, the gasp she gave him as her back arched, was half drowned out by his own groan of ecstasy.

As they lay together afterwards, her head on his chest and his hand caressing the swollen mound of her belly, she asked him what people would say when she started to show more on the street and her pregnancy was more obvious, so soon after marriage.

"We will just tell em you had too much cake at the wedding innit?" He said seriously as she laughed, and laughed and then laughed some more.  
Alfie didn't think in that moment, that he could ever be happier. 

He was proved wrong exactly 4 months later when his baby daughter was born.


End file.
